66 THE HOP HORNBEAM. 



ular, waving or crooked, going out at various but large 

 angles, and usually from a low point on its trunk." Old 

 Gerard remarks concerning the English Hornbeam : " The 

 wood or timber is better for arrows and shafts, pulleys for 

 mills, and such like devices, than elm or witch-hazel ; for 

 in time it waxeth so hard that the toughness and hard- 

 ness of it may rather be compared to horn than to wood ; 

 and therefore it was called Hornbeam." 



The foliage of the American Hornbeam resembles that 

 of black birch, neatly corrugated, of a delicate verdure in 

 summer, and assuming a fine tint of varying crimson and 

 scarlet in the autumn. The name of Blue Beech was ap- 

 plied to it from the similarity of its branches to the com- 

 mon beech-tree, while their surface is bluish instead of 

 an ashen color. Though existing in every part of the 

 country, it is not abundant anywhere, and is not in any 

 tract of woodland the principal timber. It is most con- 

 spicuous on the borders of woods, by the sides of roads 

 lately constructed. The . scarcity of trees of this species 

 near old roadsides has been caused by the value of their 

 timber, which is cut for mechanical purposes wherever it 

 may be found. The wood of this tree is used for levers, 

 for the spokes of wheels, and for nearly all other purposes 

 which require extreme hardness of the material used. 



THE HOP HORNBEAM. 



THE Hop Hornbeam is a very different tree from the 

 one just described, resembling it only in the toughness 

 of its wood, whence the name of Lever- Wood has been 

 very generally applied to it. This tree is rarely seen by 

 the wayside. Those only know it whose occupation has 

 led them to seek it for its service in the arts, or those 



