ECONOMIC OR USEFUL PLANTS 



403 



DICOTYLEDONES. 



568. The ament-bearing plants. These include three 

 orders which resemble each other in that the flowers, at least 

 the staminate ones, are in aments or catkins. The flowers are 

 either moncrcious or dioecious and very much reduced, the 

 floral envelopes being reduced to mere scales. They are as 

 follows: The willow order (Salicales), including the willows, pop- 

 lars (Lombardy and trembling poplars), and the cotton woods, has 



Fig. 390. 



Cannabis sativa. Breaking hemp on hand brakes in Kentucky. The dark stripes across 

 the field show where the hemp has been spread for retting. After lying on the ground from 

 8 to 12 weeks it is set up in shocks to dry, and is then broken and the fiber cleaned by whipping 

 it across the brake. One man with a hand brake will average about 75 pounds of cleaned 

 fiber per day. From Fiber Investigations, U. S. Department of Agriculture. 



both kinds of flowers in catkins. Certain willows are cultivated 

 for making baskets. The walnut order (Juglandales) includes 

 the walnut, butternut, and hickory trees. The staminate flowers 

 only are borne in catkins. The beech order (Fagales) includes 

 the beech, birch, hazelnut, alder, oaks, chestnut, etc. The 

 staminate flowers here are also in catkins, and the fruits as 

 acorns in the oaks, burs in the chestnut, etc., are well known. 

 These three orders include many valuable trees for lumber, the 

 most valuable being the walnut, hickory, oaks, beech, birch, and 



