HOKM'.KAM 



HORNCA8TLE 



781 



Hornbeam (C'r/*iwi*), a genus of the luiturul 

 nli-i Amentaceu', consisting OI trees with compact, 

 tough, lianl wood ; bark almost smooth and of a 



\vliilisli gray colour, deciduous leaves, ;mil mmm- 

 ri.iu.-. flowers. Tin' mall! catkins are cylindrical 

 and so-ili- ; their flowers consist merely of a little 

 scale-like bract and twelve to twenty-four stamens. 

 The female catkins are slender, several inches long 

 \\ln-n in fruit, and conspicuous for their long leaf- 

 like bracts, and containing small, ovoid, prominently 



Common Hornbeam (Carpinus betuius) : 

 a, male catkin ; 6, female catkin, fully developed ; c, fruit. 



ribbed nuts. The flowers appear in spring as the 

 leaves come out. Such are the characteristics of 

 the Common Hornbeam (Carpinus betuius), which 

 is believed to be indigenous to Britain, but is best 

 known as a plantation tree. It has a wide range 

 of distribution on the continent of Europe. 



The tree attains a height of from 30 to 80 feet 

 rarely the latter. The wood is white, verv com- 

 pact, hard, and tough, but does not now rank high 

 commercially. It is occasionally used by joiners, 

 turners, and wheelwrights, but, being capable of 

 receiving a fine polish, is more in demand for 

 purposes of ornament than utility. It -was for- 

 merly in Britain, and is yet in many parts of 

 Europe, preferred for making yokes for cattle 

 hence, according to some authorities, the name 

 hornbeam. It is one of the best of firewoods, and, 

 the leaves, like those of the beech, being persistent in 

 winter, it is employed as a hedge plant for purposes 

 of shelter. There are a very few other species of 

 Carpinus natives of Europe, Asia, and North 

 America, differing chiefly in the size and shape 

 of the fruiting bracts. 



Horn bill, the name of a genus (Buceros) and 

 of a family ( Bucerotid.-v) of birds now placed in the 

 division of Kissirostral Picarian birds. The species 

 are numerous, and are found in Africa, India, and 

 throughout the Malayan region as far as New 

 (ininea. They are mostly large birds, the largest 

 being more than 4 feet long, the smallest rather 

 smaller than a magpie. They are bulky birds of 

 heavy, noisy flight ; their large bills are surmounted 

 by bony crests or helmets of varied shape and 

 sometimes of great size, but rendered light by the 

 presence of numerous air-cells. Their food is prin- 

 cipally fruits, but in certain circumstances they 

 become to a great extent omnivorous. The most 

 curious fact regarding these birds is that during 

 the breeding season the male imprisons the female 

 in the nest in a hollow tree, plastering up the 

 entrance, and leaving only a small slit through 



Hornbill (Buceros rhinoceroi). 



which he BupplieH her and her offspring with food 

 until the young ones are nearly full grown. In 

 captivity the male 

 l.inl IHLS been ob- 

 served to disgorge 

 at intervals the lin- 

 ing of his gizzard in 

 the form of a bag, 

 and it is sup|>osed 

 that the food sup- 

 plied to the female 

 during her term of 

 captivity in the 

 breeding season is 

 enclosed in this 

 structure. 



Hornblende, 

 an important rock- 

 forming mineral, 

 having much the 

 same composition as 

 augite. It is con- 

 sidered to l>e an iso- 

 morphous mixture of 

 silicate of magnesia 

 and lime and silicate 

 of iron and lime, 

 combined with an 

 aluminous silicate of 

 lime and magnesia. 



It crystallises in monpclinic forms ; has a hardness 

 = 5 '5 to 6 ; and specific gravity = 3'1 to 3 - 3. There 

 are two tolerably well-marked varieties viz. com- 

 mon hornblende and basaltic hornblende. Common 

 hornblende is dark-green to raven-black, and is 

 characteristic of many crystalline schists and 

 plutonic rocks. It generally takes the form of 

 long prismatic crystals, but is sometimes massive, 

 fibrous, and radiating. Basaltic hornblende is gen- 

 erally brownish-black to pitch-black, and the crys- 

 tals are usually short ami well formed. It occurs 

 as a primary constituent of many eruptive rocks. 

 Smaragdite is a peculiar grass-green lamellar form 

 of hornblende, characteristic of the rock Eclogite. 



Hornbook* the primer or apparatus for learn- 

 ing the elements of reading, used in England 

 before the days of printing, and common down to 

 the time of George II. It consisted of a single 

 leaf, containing on one side the alphabet large and 

 small, in black letter or in Roman, with perhaps 

 a small regiment of monosyllables. Then followed 

 a form of exorcism and the Lord's Prayer, and as 

 a finale, the -Roman numerals. The leaf was usually 

 set in a frame of wood, with a slice of transparent 

 horn in front hence the name of Aorw-book. There 

 was a handle to hold it by, and usually this handle 

 had a hole for a string, whereby the apparatus was 

 slung to the girdle of the scholar. Sometimes the 

 leaf was simply pasted against a slice of horn. At 

 first the leaf was of vellum, with the character* ii- 

 writing; latterly, of paper, and printed. The horn- 

 book was prefaced and otherwise ornamented with 

 figures of the cross, and hence came to be often 

 called Christ Cross Row, or Criss Cross Row. 

 Common as hornbooks at one time were, copies 

 of them are now exceedingly rare. See the elaborate 

 monograph by A. W. Tuer, the History of the 

 Horn Book, with illustrations and fac-simii' 

 vols. 1896); and Halli well's Fugitive Tract* (1849). 

 Allusions to the hornbook alxmnd in the older 

 writers; thusShenstone, in his Schoolmistress, tells 

 us of the children, how 



Tln-ir books of stature small they take in hand, 

 Which with pellucid horn s-.-oured are, 

 To save from fingers wet the letters fair. 



Hornoastle, an ancient market-town of Lin- 

 colnshire, at the foot of the Wolds, between the 

 confluent Bain and Waring, 21 miles E. of Lincoln! 



