444 CUPULIFER^ 



sessile, erect, the staminate longer ; anthers and styles red ; drupe 

 minute, 2-winged by the adherent bracts. — Bogs ; common. — Fl. 

 May — July. Perennial. 



Ord. LXXV. Cupulifer/e. — Mast-bearing Family 



An Order variously limited by different botanists, but which 

 may be taken as comprising lo genera and about 400 species of 

 trees and shrubs, widely distributed over the globe and of very 

 great value to man as timber, for bark containing tannin and 

 useful therefore in dressing leather, and for edible seeds. They 

 have scattered, stipulate, simple leaves, either evergreen (in foreign 

 species) or deciduous; and monoecious flowers which are pollinated 

 by the wind. The staminate flowers are generally in pendulous, 

 deciduous catkins, with 2 — 20 stamens in each flower ; the carpel- 

 late flowers sessile in an involucre, each generally with a superior 

 5 — 6-toothed perianth, a 2 — 3-chambered ovary, 2 — 3 styles, and i 

 or 2 ovules in each chamber. The fruit is a dry indehiscent i- or 

 rarely 2-seeded nut, surrounded by the cupule or enlarged invo- 

 lucre, which gives its name to the Order ; and the seeds are large, 

 exalbuminous, with 2, or rarely 3, fleshy or mealy cotyledons. 



Cork is the outer bark of Quercus Suber, an evergreen species 

 of Oak mainly grown in Northern Spain. Its periodical removal 

 in no way injures the vitality of the tree. The first crop which is 

 cracked and furrowed is known as Virgin Cork. Quercitron, the 

 bark of the North American Quercus tinctoria, is mainly employed 

 as a yellow dye. The bark of our English Oak {Q. Robur), Valonia, 

 which is the acorn-cups, and Cameta, the young acorns of the 

 Levantine ^.y£'g//o/>5', are used in tanning; and the galls produced 

 by insect puncture on Q. infect oria in the same country are one of 

 the chief ingredients of ink. The bark of various species of Birch 

 (Betula) is used in Canada for making canoes and moccasins, 

 and in Russia for various utensils, as well as in tanning. The 

 wood of the Alder (Alnus glutinosa) is burnt into charcoal for 

 making gunpowder, and that of the Hornbeam (Carpinus Betulus), 

 on account of its toughness, is specially adapted to the manu- 

 facture of cog-wheels, as also is that of the American Live Oak 

 {Quercus virens). The wood of the Quebec Birch {Betula lenta) 

 and that of the European B. verrucosa are largely used in making 

 furniture, and that of the Beech {Fdgus sylvdtica) in Buckingham- 

 shire, in chair-making ; whilst it is unnecessary to attempt to 

 enumerate the uses of Oak timber. Chestnuts, the fruit of Cas- 

 tdnea sativa, are an important article of food in southern Europe, 



