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. Fruita 
winged or angled nut; bracts of the pistillate flowers some- 
what fleshy, persistent, becoming woody in fruit.* 
1. A. serrulata, Willd. SmootnH Atper. A shrub or small tree 
with smooth bark. Leaves obovate, rounded or obtuse at the apex, 
acute at the base, sharply and minutely 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. SpecKLep ALperR. 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. FAGACEZ. Beecu Famity. 
Trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate, simple, pinnately 
veined; stipules deciduous. Flowers monecious, 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.* 
