66 Trees zuith Simple Leaves. [An 



Genus CARPINUS, L. (Hornbeam.) 



Fig. 33, a and b. Hornbeam, Ironwood, Water Beech, Blue 

 Beech. C. Caroliniana, Walt. 



Leaves, SIMPLE ; ALTERNATE ; EDGE VERY SHARPLY AND 



QUITE IRREGULARLY AND UNEVENLY TOOTHED. 



Outline, long egg-shape, or reverse long egg-shape. 

 Apex, taper-pointed. Base, rounded or slightly 

 heart-shaped. 



Leaf-stem, about one half inch long, slender and smooth, 

 or slightly hairy. 



Leaf, usually three to four inches long, and about half as 

 wide, but with many smaller leaves of varying size 

 on the same branch ; nearly smooth, slightly hairy on 

 the straight and distinct ribs and in their angles. 



Bark of trunk, a deep bluish-gray or slate ; smooth, but 

 often marked up and down with irregular ridges, 

 which run from each side of the lower branches. 

 The new shoots are somewhat hairy, and brownish 

 or purplish ; the older branchlets, an ashy-gray color, 

 with a pearly lustre. 



Fruit, in loose drooping cluster, with leaf-like scales that 

 are strongly three-lobed and placed in pairs base to 

 base. October. 



Found, along streams and in swamps. Quite common 

 North, South, and West ; northward often only as 

 a low shrub. 



A small tree or shrub, usually ten to twenty feet high, 

 but in the southern Alleghany Mountains sometimes 

 reaching a height of fifty feet. Its wood is white and 

 very compact and strong. 



