474 cuPULiFER^. (oak family.) 



miuating early leafj shoots. (The classical name, probably from KSpvt, a 

 helmet, from the iuvolucre.) 



1. C. AmeriCctna, AValt. (Wild Hazel-nut.) Leaves roundish-heart- 

 shaped, pointed; involucre open above down to the globose nut, of 2 broad foil - 

 aceous cut-toothed almost distinct bracts, their base coriaceous and downy, or 

 with glandular bristles intermixed. — Thickets, N. Eng. to Ont. and Dak., and 

 southward. Twigs and petioles often glandular-bristly. 



2. C. rostrata, Ait. (Beaked Hazel-xut.) Leaves ovate or ovate- 

 oblong, someivhat heart-shaped, pointed ; involucre of united bracts, much pro- 

 longed above the ovoid nut into a narrow tubular beak, densely bristly. — N. 

 Scotia to northern N. J., Mich., Minn., and westward, and south iu the moun- 

 tains to Ga. Shrub 2-6° high. 



4. OS TRY A, Micheli. Hop-Hornbeam. Iron-wood. 



Sterile flowers in drooping cylindrical catkins, consisting of several stamens 

 in the axil of each bract ; filaments short, often forked, bearing 1 -celled (half) 

 anthers ; their tips hairy. Fertile flowers in short catkins ; a pair to each de- 

 ciduous bract, each of an incompletely 2-celled 2-ovuled ovary, crowned with 

 the short bearded border of the adherent calyx, tipped with 2 longdinear stig- 

 mas, and enclosed in a tubular bractlet, which in fruit becomes a closed blad- 

 dery oblong Ijag, very much larger than the small and smooth nut; tliese 

 inflated involucres loosely imbricated to form a sort of strobile, in appearance 

 like that of the Hop. — Slender trees, with very hard wood, brownish furrowed 

 bark, and foliage resembling that of Birch ; leaves open and concave in the bud, 

 more or less plaited on the straight veins. Flowers in spring, appearing with 

 the leaves; the sterile catkins 1 -3 together from scaly buds at the tip of the 

 branches of the preceding year; the fertile single, terminating short leafy 

 shoots of the season. (The classical name.) 



1. O. Virginica, Willd. (American Hop-Hornbeam. Lever-wood.) 

 Leaves oblong-ovate, taper-pointed, very sharply doubl}' serrate, downy beneath, 

 with 11-15 principal veins ; buds acute; involucral sacs bristly-hairy at the 

 base. — Rich woods, common, from the Atlantic to N. Minn., Neb., E. Kan., 

 and southward. Tree 25 - 45° high ; hop4ike strobiles full-grown in Aug. 



5. CARPINUS, L. Hornbeam. Iron-wood. 



Sterile flowers in drooping cylindrical catkins, consisting of several stamens 

 in the axil of a simple and entire scale4ike bract ; filaments very short, mostly 

 2-forked, the forks bearing 1 -celled (half-) anthers with hairy tips. Fertile 

 flowers several, spiked in a sort of loose terminal catkin, with small deciduous 

 bracts, each subtending a pair of flowers, as in Ostrya ; but the single involucre- 

 like bractlet is open, enlarged in fruit and foliaceous, merely subtending the 

 small ovate several-nerved nut. — Trees or tall shrubs, with smooth close gray 

 bark, in this and in the slender buds and straight-veined leaves resembling the 

 Beech ; leaf -buds and inflorescence as in Ostrya. (The early Latin name.) 



1. C. Caroliniana, Walter. (American Hornbeam. Blue or Water 

 Beech.) Leaves ovate-oblong, pointed, sharply doubly serrate, soon nearly 

 smooth ; bractlets 34obed, halberd-shaped, sparingly cut-toothed on one side, 

 acute. (C. Americana, Michx.) — Along streams, N. Scotia to Fla., west to 



