BETULACE.K. (HIKCH FAMILY.) 451 



ovate, acuminate, imbricated, stamiuiferous at the liase, hairy, the lower ones 

 empty ; stamens 5-10, free: anthers 2-celled, iutrorse. Fertile aiaent few- 

 many -flowered, narrowly cylindrical, short, in fruit elongated ; bracts ovate, 

 approximate, at length scattered, the lower ones empty. Ovary ovoid, nearly 

 smooth, with the base surrounded by a cup of 4 minute ovate toothed scales. 

 Ovule solitary, amphitropous. Stigma solitary, thick, elongated, channelled. 

 Drupe oblong, obtuse, narrowed at the base : epicarp thick, coriaceous, smooth : 

 endocarp crustaceous. Albumen none. Embryo large, filling the cell. Coty- 

 ledons oval, compressed. Kadicle superior. A stout shrub, 2 - 6 high, with 

 soft wood and smooth light brown bark, without resinous dots. Branches 

 short and thick, hoary-pubescent when young. Leaves oblong or obovate- 

 oblong (4' -6' long), acute at each end, entire, smooth and shining above, 

 hoary-tomentose beneath, straight-veined, on long spreading or recurved hoary 

 petioles, deciduous. Stipules none. Ameuts developed before the leaves, 

 from the axils of the preceding year, the sterile ones 1'- l|' long, the fertile 

 6" -8" long. Drupe \' long, green, slightly curved. 



1. L. Floridana, Chapm. Salt or brackish marshes, Apalachicola, 

 Florida. Feb.- March. 



ORDER 131. BETtTLAC-E^E. (BIRCH FAMILY.) 



Trees or shrubs, with alternate simple straight-veined leaves, de- 

 ciduous stipules, and monoecious amentaceous flowers, placed 2 - 3 to- 

 gether in the axil of a 3-lobed bract. Stamens 4 : filaments distinct. 

 Ovary 2-celled, with a single suspended anatropous ovule in each cell. 

 Stigmas 2, elongated. Fruit a winged or angled 1-celled 1-seeded nut, 

 forming, with the imbricated persistent bracts, a cone-like spike. 



1. BETULA, Tourn. BIRCH. 



Sterile aments drooping. Bracts 3-flowered, 2-hracteolate, peltate. Calyx 

 scale-like. Stamens short : anthers 1-celled. Fertile aments oblong or cylin- 

 drical. Bracts 3-flowered. Calyx uone. Stigmas filiform. Nut broadly 

 winged. Cotyledons oblong. Trees or shrubs, with the outer bark often 

 separable into thin papery sheets. Leaves petioled, serrate. Fruiting bracts 

 membranaceous. 



1. B. nigra, L. (RED BIRCH.) Leaves rhombic-ovate, acute, doubly 

 serrate, smooth above, hoary-tomentose beneath, like the short petioles and 

 branchlets, becoming rusty or smoothish ; sterile aments long and drooping ; 

 the fertile ones oblong, short-peduncled, with the woollv bracts cleft into tlirfc 

 linear-oblong nearly equal lobes. (B. rubra, Michx.} Banks of rivers. 

 March A middle-sized tree, with reddish brown bark, and long spreading 

 branches. 



2. B. lute a, Michx. (YELLOW BIRCH.) Leaves ovate or oblong-ovate, 

 acuminate, unequally and doubly serrate, pubescent, like the hranchlets, when 

 young, at length smooth on both sides, on short pubescent petioles ; fruiting 

 aments oval-oblong; lobes of the bracts nearly equal, slightly spreading and 



