480 CUPULIFER^E. (OAK FAMILY.) 



to form the 4-lobed involucre ; calyx-lobes 6, awl-shaped ; ovary 3-celled with 2 

 ovules in each cell ; styles 3, thread-like, stigmatic along the inner side. Nuts 

 sharply 3-sided, usually 2 in each urn-shaped and soft-prickly coriaceous involu- 

 cre, which divides to below the middle into 4 valves. Cotyledons thick, folded 

 and somewhat united ; but rising and expanding in germination. Trees, with 

 a close and smooth ash-gray bark, a light horizontal spray, and undivided 

 strongly straight-veined leaves, which are open and convex in the tapering bud 

 and plaited on the veins. Flowers appearing with the leaves, the yellowish 

 staminate flowers from the lower, the pistillate from the upper axils of the 

 leaves of the season. (The classical Latin name, from fydyai, to eat, in allusion 

 to the esculent nuts.) 



1. F. ferruginea, Ait. (AMERICAN BEECH.) Tree 75-100 high; 

 leaves oblong-ovate, taper-pointed, distinctly and often coarsely toothed ; peti- 

 oles and midrib soon nearly naked ; prickles of the fruit mostly recurved or 

 spreading. N. Scotia to Fla., west to Wise., E. 111., Mo., and Tex. 



ORDER 104. SALICACEJE. (WILLOW FAMILY.) 



Dioecious trees or shrubs, with both kinds of flowers in catkins, one to 

 each bract, without perianth ; the fruit a l-celled and 2 - 4-oalved pod, with 

 2-4 parietal or basal placentae, bearing numerous seeds furnished ivith 

 long silky down. Style usually short or none ; stigmas 2, often 2-lobed. 

 Seeds ascending, anatropous, without albumen. Cotyledons flattened. 

 Leaves alternate, undivided, with scale-like and deciduous, or else leaf- 

 like and persistent, stipules. Wood soft and light ; bark bitter. 



1. Salix. Bracts entire. Flowers with small glands ; disks none. Stamens few. Stigmas 



short. Buds with a single scale. 



2. Populus. Bracts lacerate. Flowers with a broad or cup-shaped disk. Stamens nu- 



merous. Stigmas elongated. Buds scaly. 



1. SALIX, Tourn. WILLOW. OSIER. (By M. S. BEBB, Esq.) 



Bracts (scales) of the catkins entire. Sterile flowers of 3 - 10, mostly 2, dis- 

 tinct or united stamens, accompanied by 1 or 2 small glands. Fertile flowers 

 also with a small flat gland at the base of the ovary; stigmas short. Trees 

 or shrubs, generally growing along streams, with terete and lithe branches. 

 Leaves mostly long and pointed, entire or glandularly toothed. Buds covered 

 bv a single scale, with an inner adherent membrane (separating in n. 14). 

 Catkins appearing before or with the leaves. (The classical Latin name.) 



1. Ainents borne on short lateral leafy branch/ets ; scales yellowish, falling before 

 the capsules mature ; filaments hairy below, all free ; style very short or obso- 

 lete ; stigmas thick, notched. Trees or large shrubs; leaves taper-pointed. 

 * Leaves closely serrate with inflexed teeth; capsules glabrous. 



-t- Stamens 3 5 or more. 



+* Trees 15-50 high, with rough bark and slender twigs ; no petiolar glands,- 

 sterile aments elongated, narrowly cylindrical ; flowers somewhat remotely 

 subvertici/hitc ; scales entire, short and rounded, crisp-villous on the inside. 



1. S. nigra, Marsh. (BLACK WILLOW.) Leaves narrowly lanceolate, 

 very long-attenuate from near the roundish or acute base to the usually curved tip, 



