DICOTYLEDONOUS PLANTS 55 



ments short. Pistillate catkins erect ; flowers 2-3 in the axil 

 of each bract, perianth replaced by 2-4 minute bractlets which 

 are adherent to the bract ; ovary 2-celled, styles 2. Fruit a 

 winged or angled nut ; bracts of the pistillate flowers some- 

 what fleshy, persistent, becoming woody in fruit.* 



1. A. serrulata, Willd. Smooth Alder. A shrub or small tree 

 with smooth bark. Leaves obovate, rounded or obtuse at the apex, 

 acute at the base, sharply and ndnutely serrate, smooth above, downy 

 beneath, petioled, stipules oval, deciduous. Staminate catkins 2-4 

 in. long; fruiting catkins ovoid, short-peduncled. Fruit ovate, wing- 

 less. Banks of streams and borders of marshes, ranging far S. 

 Leaves often persistent during the winter.* 



2. A. incana, Willd. Speckled Alder. A shrub 8-20 ft. high. 

 Leaves broadly oval or ovate, rounded at the base, sharply (some- 

 times doubly) serrate, white and usually downy beneath. Fruit 

 round. Forming thickets by streams, very common N. 



18. FAGACE^. Beech Family. 



Trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate, simple, pinnately 

 veined; stipules deciduous. Flowers monoecious, the stami- 

 nate in heads, or in drooping, spreading, or erect catkins, 

 calyx minute, petals none, stamens 4-20. Pistillate flowers 

 solitary or in small clusters, each flower subtended by more 

 or less united bracts which at maturity form a cup or bur, 

 calyx minutely toothed, petals none ; ovary 2-7-celled, but 

 becoming 1-celled. Fruit a 1-seeded nut.* 



I. FAGUS, Tourn. 



Trees with smooth, close, ash-gray bark, and slender, often 

 horizontal branches. Staminate flowers in long, slender- 

 peduncled, roundish clusters, calyx bell-shaped, 4-6-cleft, 

 stamens 8-12, anthers 2-celled; pistillate flowers solitary or 

 more often in pairs, peduncled, surrounded by a 4-lobed in- 

 volucre and numerous linear bracts ; ovaries 3-celled with 2 

 ovules in each cell, but usually only 1 ovule matures in each 

 ovary ; styles 3, thread-shaped, fruit a thin-shelled, 3-angled 

 nut.* 



