566 AMENTACE^l. 





valued for their fruit, timber, bark, and other minor 

 productions. They are most abundant in temperate 

 climates, comprising a large proportion of our English 

 Forest Trees. They have been, subdivided by botanists 

 into several sub-orders, or groups, four of which contain 

 British specimens. The first sub-order, SALICINE^E (the 

 Willow group), is distinguished by bearing all its flowers 

 in catkins, the fruit being a 2-valved capsule, containing 

 numerous seeds tufted with down. In the sub- order 

 MYRICE.E (Sweet-Gale group), the flowers are all in 

 catkins, and the ripe fruit assumes a drupe-like appear- 

 ance, from being invested by the fleshy scales of the 

 catkin. In BETULINE^; (Birch group) the flowers are 

 all in catkins, and the fruit is thin and flattened, con- 

 taining 1 or 2 seeds, which are not tufted with down. 

 In CUPULIFER.E the fertile flowers grow in tufts or spikes, 

 the barren flowers in catkins, and the fruit is either 

 wholly or partially invested with a tough case, termed a 

 cupula. By some modern botanists these groups are 

 " severally treated as distinct orders under the names of 

 SALICACE^E, MYRICACE^;, BETULACE^; and CUPULIFER^: ; 

 but it has been thought expedient to retain the few 

 examples described in this volume under the compre- 

 hensive order Amentacese. All the British Trees belong- 

 ing to the order are described at length in " Forest Trees 

 of Britain," where mention also occurs of many foreign 

 species, which are worthy of notice for their application 

 to useful purposes or for their peculiar productions. 



Sub-order I. SALICINE^;. Willow Group. 



1. SALIX (Willow). Stamens and pistils on different 

 plants (dioecious) ; scales of the catkin imbricated entire ; 

 stamens 1 5 ; stigmas 2 ; capsule of 2 valves, 1 -celled ; 

 seeds numerous, tufted with cottony down. (Name, the 

 Latin name of the plant.) 



2. POPULUS (Poplar). Stamens and pistils on dif- 

 ferent plants ; scales of the catkin jagged ; stamens 

 S 30 ; stigmas 4 or 8 ; capsule of 2 valves, obscurely 



