SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. CUPULIFERE. 
40 
with two or three small linear acute deciduous bractlets (Distegocarpus). Nut ovate, acute, compressed, 
conspicuously longitudinally ribbed, crowned by the remnants of the calyx-lobes, and marked at the 
broad base with a large conspicuous pale oval umbilicus, deciduous from the involucre in the autumn at 
maturity ; pericarp of two coats, the outer light brown, thin, and membranaceous, the inner thicker, 
hard, and bony. Seed solitary by abortion, filling the cavity of the nut, suspended, exalbuminous ; testa 
membranaceous, light chestnut-brown ; cotyledons thick and fleshy, plano-convex, epigzous in germina- 
tion, much longer than the short superior radicle turned toward the conspicuous apical hilum. 
Ten or twelve species of Carpinus are now known. One is widely distributed through the 
temperate regions of eastern North America, ranging southward to the highlands of Central America. 
Two species inhabit Europe; of these, Carpinus Betulus ” is widely and generally spread through the 
lowland forests of central and southern Europe, where it ranges from southern England and southern 
Scandinavia to northern Spain, France, Italy, the countries bordering the lower Danube, central Russia, 
the Caucasus, and northern Persia, and Carpinus Duinensis® is confined to the southern and south- 
eastern parts of the continent and to western Asia, where it is found in mountain forests from Sicily 
and central Italy to Hungary, Greece, Asia Minor, Transcaucasia, northern Persia, and Turkestan. 
Two species are found on the temperate Himalaya ;* two or three are probably endemic in China ;° 
1 The species of Carpinus may be grouped in the following sec- 
tions : — 
Evucarpinus. Scales of the staminate ament broadly ovate, sub- 
sessile. Fruiting involucres foliaceous, conspicuously or (Carpinus 
Duinensis) obscurely three-lobed, open or slightly infolded over 
the nut, loosely imbricated. Bark close and smooth. Inhabitants 
of eastern North America, Europe, western Asia, the Himalayas, 
China, and Japan. 
DISTEGOCARPUS. 
stipitate. Fruiting involucres membranaceous, nearly white, longi- 
tudinally ribbed, coarsely dentate toward the apex, infolded below 
and covering the nuts, closely imbricated into a short or elongated 
strobile. Bark loose and scaly. Inhabitants of western Asia. 
2 Linneus, Spec. 998 (excl. habitat Canada) (1753). — Scopoli, 
Fl. Carn. ed. 2, ii. 243.— Hornemann, Fil. Dan. viii. t. 1345. — 
Nouveau Duhamel, ii. 198, t. 58. —Smith & Sowerby, English Bot. 
xxix. t. 2032.— Reichenbach, Icon. Fl. German. xii. 4, t. 632. — 
Hartig, Forst. Culturpfl. Deutschl. 229, t. 21.— A. de Candolle, Prodr. 
xvi. pt. ii. 126. — Parlatore, Fl. Ital. iv. 145.— Willkomm & Lange, 
Prodr. Fl. Hispan. i. 237.— Boissier, Fl. Orient. iv. 1177. — Hempel 
& Wilhelm, Baume und Strducher, ii. 30, f. 137-139, t. 17. 
Carpinus Carpinizza, Host, Fl. Aust. ii. 626 (1831). 
Carpinus intermedia, Reichenbach, J. c. xii. 4, t. 633 (1850). 
The European Hornbeam, which usually grows in cold heavy 
clay soil in low situations, often near streams, and rarely in moun- 
tain forests, sometimes attains the height of sixty or seventy feet, 
Seales of the staminate ament lanceolate, 
with a straight trunk and a dense symmetrical round-topped head. 
The wood is nearly white, strong, heavy, and coarse-grained, and 
is marked with numerous broad conspicuous medullary rays ; ignit- 
ing quickly and producing a bright clear flame, it is chiefly used as 
firewood ; it also makes excellent charcoal, and is employed for 
the handles of tools, wooden screws, the teeth of cog-wheels, and 
other small articles. 
Carpinus Betulus produces vigorous stump shoots in great profu- 
sion, and is often planted in coppice. The dried leaves are valued 
and largely consumed in central Europe as forage for domestic 
animals (Mathieu, FU. Forestiere, ed. 3, 341). 
The ability of this tree to support frequent and severe pruning 
makes it a valuable hedge plant, and it was formerly largely em- 
ployed for this purpose, and for the clipped borders of alleys and 
mazes in the formal seventeenth century gardens of France and 
Germany. (See London & Wise, The Retired Gardener, ii. 741. — 
Duhamel, Traité des Arbres, i. 128. — Evelyn, Silva, ed. Hunter, 
i. 141. — Marshall, Planting and Rural Ornament, ii. 52. — Loudon, 
Arb. Brit. iii. 2009.) 
A number of abnormal forms of the European Hornbeam have 
appeared and are sometimes cultivated. The most distinct are 
those with pendulous branches, with upright growing branches 
forming a narrow pyramidal head, and those with incisely cut and 
with purple leaves (Dippel, Handb. Laubhoizk. ii. 140). 
Carpinus Betulus is occasionally planted in the parks and gar- 
dens of the eastern United States, and is hardy as far north at least 
as eastern Massachusetts, where it grows vigorously to a large size. 
8 Scopoli, J. c. t. 60 (1772). — A. de Candolle, /. c. 127. — Parla- 
tore, J. c. 148. — Boissier, 7. c.— Hempel & Wilhelm, 1. c. 34, f. 
140. 
Carpinus orientalis, Lamarck, Dict. i. 707 (1783). — Watson, 
Dendr. Brit. ii. 98, t. 98. — Reichenbach, J. c. 5, t. 634. 
This small bushy tree with rather closely imbricated fruiting invo- 
lucres, entire or somewhat lobulate and slightly infolded at the base, 
is chiefly interesting as showing the close connection between the 
species of Eucarpinus and those of the Asiatic Distegocarpus group. 
It is occasionally planted in the gardens of eastern America, and 
is perfectly hardy as far north as eastern New England, an old 
specimen twelve or fifteen feet tall and broad which stands in the 
Botanic Garden of Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 
ripening its fruit in the greatest profusion. 
4 Brandis, Forest Fl. Brit. Ind. 492, t. 66. — Hooker f. Fi. Brit. 
Ind. v. 625. 
5 Of the nature and character of the Chinese species of Carpinus 
little is yet known. What appears to be the Carpinus viminea, 
Lindley (Wallich, Pl. As. Rar. ii. 4, t. 106 [1831]), of the Hima- 
layas has been found by Dr. Augustine Henry in the Province of 
Szechuen ; and on the mountains near Peking the Russian botanist 
Turezaninow found a small shrubby Carpinus resembling Carpinus 
Duinensis (Carpinus Turczaninovii, Hance, Jour. Linn. Soc. x. 203 
(1869). — Maximowicz, Bull. Acad. Sci. St. Pétersbourg, xxvii. 535 
[Mél. Biol. xi. 315]. — Franchet, Nouv. Arch. Mus. sér. 2, vii. 278 
[Pl. David. i.]). The Japanese Carpinus laxiflora is said to grow 
in central China (Franchet, 1. c. 279) ; and Carpinus cordata of 
Japan probably occurs in the northern part of the Chinese empire, 
as it is acommon inhabitant of the Manchurian forests in the neigh- 
