448 CUPULIFER^E. (OAK FAMILY.) 



1. C. vesca, L. (CHESTNUT.) Leaves oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, 

 coarsely serrate, smooth on both sides ; nuts mostly 3, the middle one flat 

 tened, the 2 outer ones plano-convex, dark brown. Dry woods, mostly in 

 the upper districts. April. A large tree. Leaves 6'- 7' long. 



2. C. pumila, Michx. (CmxytAHN.) Leaves oblong, acute, or obtuse, 

 finely serrate, hoary-tomeutose beneath ; nuts solitary, nearly globular. (C'. 

 naua, Muhl., a form with larger leaves and nuts.) Dry sandy soil, Florida, 

 and northward. April - May. A large shrub or small tree. Leaves, invo- 

 lucre, and nut smaller than those of the preceding. 



3. FAGUS, Tourn. BEECH. 



Sterile flowers capitate, on long and drooping peduncles, with deciduous 

 bracts. Calyx bell-shaped, 5 - 6 cleft. Stamens 8-12: anthers 2-celled. 

 Fertile flowers solitary or by pairs, peduncled, surrounded with numerous 

 linear bracts and a 4-lobed involucre. Calyx of 4-5 subulate lobes. Ovary 

 3-celled, with two ovules in each cell. Styles 3, filiform. Nuts commonly 2, 

 acutely 3 angled, enclosed in the soft-spiny 4-valved involucre. Cotyledons 

 thick and fleshy. Trees, with whitish bark, and straight-veined leaves ex- 

 panding with the flowers. 



1. F. ferruginea, Ait. Leaves oblong-ovate or rhombic, acute, finely 

 serrate, silky on both sides when young, when old only on the veins beneath ; 

 spines of the involucre short, recurved. Damp sandy soil. April. A large 

 tree, with widely spreading branches. 



4. CORYLUS, Tourn. HAZEL-XUT. 



Sterile flowers in cylindrical pendulous bracted aments. Calyx 2-cleft, 

 partly united with the bract. Stamens 8: anthers 1 -celled. Fertile flowers 

 clustered. Ovary 2-celled, 2-ovuled. Stigmas 2, filiform. Involucre tubular 

 at the base, leafy and lacerated at the summit, enclosing a single bony (edible) 

 nu t. Shrubs, with broadly cordate doubly serrate petioled leaves. Flowers 

 appearing before the leaves. 



1. C. Americana, Walt. (HA/EL-NUT.) Branchlets glandular ; leaves 

 round-cordate, coarsely serrate, acuminate, pubescent ; involucre roundish at 

 the base, dilated and flattened above the nut, glandular-hairy ; nut roundish, 

 somewhat flattened. Rich soil along the margins of woods and thickets, 

 West Florida, and northward. Feb.- March. Shrub 5-6 high, tough 

 and flexible. Leaves 4' -6' long. 



2. C. rostrata, Ait. (BEAKED HAZET.-NITT.) Branchlets smooth ; leaves 

 ovate or oblong-ovate, slight v cordate, acuminate, finely serrate, rather thin. 

 pubescent ; involucre bristlv. prolonged into a tube above the nut, 2-cleft and 

 toothed at the summit; fruit nearly globular. Rich soil in the upper dis- 

 tricts. March - April. Shrub 4 - 6 high. 



5. CARPINUS, L. HORNBEAM. 



Flowers destitute of floral envelopes, supported by scale-like bracts. Sterile 

 flowers in drooping cylindrical ameuts. Stamens 8- 14 : filaments short: an- 



