AMENTIPER^. 175 



Tall and erect, with milk-white clusters hung, 



A virgin scene ! A little while I stood, 



Breathing with such suppression of the heart 



As joy dehghts in ; and with wise restraint 



Voluptuous, fearless of a rival, eyed 



The banquet. Then up I arose, 



And dragg'd to earth each branch and bough with crash 



And merciless ravage ; and the shady nook 



Of hazels, and the green and mossy bower, 



Deformed and sullied, patiently gave up 



Their quiet being ; but, unless I now 



Confound my pi'csent feelings with the j^ast. 



Even then, when from the bower I turn'd away 



Exulting, rich beyond the wealth of kings, 



I felt a sense of pain when I beheld 



The silent trees, and the intruding sky." 



GENUS V.^CAR'PI'N VS. Linn. 



Male flowers in cylindrical catkins with rather large persistent catkin- 

 scales: floral-scales or perianth none: stamens 12 or more, inserted 

 on the base of the catkin-scale. Female flowers in lax racemes, in 

 the axils of small caducous bracts, each flower surrounded by a bell- 

 shaped 3-lobed involucre, which is smooth on the outside, but un- 

 equally 3-lobed at the apex : perianth completely adherent to the ovary, 

 and not produced beyond it, the limb very short and denticulate: 

 ovary 2-celled, with 1 ovule in each; styles 2, united at the base. 

 Nut ovate-ovoid, compressed, ribbed, soHtary, 1 -celled and 1 -seeded, 

 embraced by a foliaceous cupule with 3 reticulated segments, of 

 which the middle one is much larger than the others; pericarp woody. 

 Cotyledons filling the seed, fleshy. 



Trees with scaly buds and deciduous elliptical leaves intermediate 

 in appearance between those of the common elm and beech, but 

 strongly plicate in the direction of the veins. Flowers monoecious, 

 appearing with the young leaves. 



According to some authors, the derivation of the name of this genus of plants is from 

 car, wood, and pix, the Celtic word for head, from the wood being used to make the 

 yokes of oxen ; and, according to others, from the Romans using the wood for raaking 

 a sort of chariot, which they called carpenhtm, and which the Swedes still call Karm. 

 The French name, Charme, is evidently from the same origin. The Enghsh name, 

 Hornbeam, alludes to the horny texture of the wood, and the German one, of Hain- 

 huche, to the use of the wood for making groves in the geometric style of gardening. 



