BOTANICAL NOTES ON BRITISH FOREST TREES. 333 



13. HORNBEAM. 

 Carpinus Betulus (L.). Cupuliferse. 



Moderately large and somewhat spreading tree, with 

 Beech-like habit, but distinguished by its buttressed 

 trunk. Cortex (no true bark) smooth, thin, ash-grey, 

 and very like that of Beech, and even more apt to be 

 invaded by lichens and moss. 



Young branches resembling those of the Beech, but 

 easily distinguished by the buds, which are shorter and 

 stouter, and somewhat appressed towards the twig, and 

 hence more erect than in Beech. Except in their darker 

 colour, the scales and hairs, &c., resemble those of the 

 Beech. 



Leaves alternate, oval to oblong, pointed, slightly 

 oblique, doubly serrate, with prominent pinnate vena- 

 tion, somewhat resembling those of the Elm. Young 

 shoots with conspicuous pink stipules. 



Male flowers in pendulous catkins, with thin, ovate- 

 acuminate, ciliated scales, tipped with pink. Female 

 flowers in pairs, in the axils of large, trilobed, beautifully 

 veined bracts, also arranged in pendulous spikes. 

 Flowers in spring. Fruit a nut, in pairs, sessile in the 

 axils of the three-lobed, persistent bracts. 



Wood yellowish-white, rather like that'of the Beech, 

 but with a number of very broad, dull, false medullary 

 rays. Annual rings sinuous. 



Seed (enclosed within the pericarp) exalbuminous. 

 Seedling with a long hypocotyl, supporting the two small, 

 shortly stalked, obovate-cordate, thickish cotyledons, 



