470 MYRICACE^. (sweet-gale FAMILY.) 



scales which coalesce with its base. — Wet borders of ponds, Newf. to N. Eng. 

 and along the Great Lakes to Minn., south in the mountains to Va. 



2. M. cerifera, L. (Eayberry. Wax-Myrtle.) Leaves oblong-lan- 

 ceolate, narrowed at the base, entire or wavy-toothed toward the apex, shining 

 and resinous-clotted both sides, somewhat preceding the flowers, fragrant ; sterile 

 catkins scattered, oblong ; scales wedge-shaped at the base ; nuts scattered and 

 naked, bony, and incrusted with white wax. — Sandy soil near the coast, from 

 Nova Scotia to Fla. and Ala. ; also oq L. Erie. Shrub 3-8° high, but some- 

 times a tree 35° high ; fruit sometimes persistent for 2 or 3 years. 



* * Frequentlg monoecious; fertile catkins globular ; ovari/ surrounded by 8 long 

 linear-aivl-shoped persistent scales ; nut ovoid-oblong ; leaves pinnatifld with 

 many rounded lobes. 



3. M. asplenif61ia, Endl. Shrub 1-2° high, with sweet scented fern- 

 like linear-lanceolate leaves ; stipules half heart-shaped ; scales of the sterile 

 catkins kidney-heart-shaped, pointed. ( Comptonia asplenifolia, AH.) — Sterile 

 hills, N. Eng. to N. C, west to Minn, and Ind. Known as Sweet Fern. 



Order 103. CUPULIFER^E. (Oak Family.) 



Moncecious trees or shrubs, with alternate simple straight-veined leaves, 

 deciduous stipules, the sterile flowers in catkins {or capitate-clustered in 

 the Beech), the fertile solitary, clustered, spiked, or in scaly catkins, the 

 l-celled and 1-seeded nut icith or without an involucre. Ovary more or 

 less 2 - 7-celle(l, with 1 or 2 pendulous anatropous ovules in each cell ; 

 but all the cells and ovules except one disappearing in the fruit. Seed 

 . with no albumen, filled with the embryo. 



Tribe I. BETlTl.E.iE. Flowers in scaly catkins, 2 or 3 to each bract. Sterile catkins 

 pendulous. Stamens 2-4, and calyx usually 2 - 4-parted. Fertile flowers with no calj-x, 

 and no involucre to the compressed and often winged small nut. Ovary 2-celled, 2-ovuled, 



1. Betula. Stamens 2, bifid. Fertile scales thin, 3-lobed, deciduous with the nuts. 



2. Alnus. Stamens 4. Fertile scales thick, entire, persisting after the nuts have fallen. 

 Tribe II. COKYLE^. Sterile catkins pendulous, with no calyx ; stamens 3 or more 



to each bract and more or less adnate to it, the filaments often forked (anthers l-celled). 

 Fertile flowers in a short anient or head, 2 to each bract, and each witli one or more 

 bractlets which form a foliaceous involucre to the nut. Ovary 2-celled, 2-ovuled. 

 ♦ Bract of staminate flower furnished with a pair of bractlets inside ; fertile flowers few, 



?. Corylus. Involucre leafy-coriaceous, enclosing the large bony nut. 



* * Bract of staminate flower^imple ; fertile flowers in short catkins ; nut small, achene-like. 



4. Ostrya. Each ovary »nd nut included in a bladdery and closed bag, 



5. Carpinus. Each nut Subtended by an enlarged leafy bractlet. 



Tribe III. QUEKCINE^. Sterile flowers with 4-7-lobed calyx and stamens indefi- 

 nite (3-20). Fertile flowers 1 or few, enclosed in a cupule consisting of consolidated 

 bracts, which becomes indurated (scaly or prickly) and surrounds or encloses the nut. 



* Sterile flowers in slender catkins. 



6. Quercus. Cupule 1-flowered, scaly and entire ; nut hard and terete. 



7. Castanea. Cupule 2 -4-flowered, forming a prickly hard bur, 2-4-valved when ripe. 



* * Sterile flowers in a small head. 



8. Fagrus. Cupule 2-flowered, 4-valved, containing 2 sharply triangular nuts. 



