AMERICAN HORNBEAM; BLUE BEECH (Carpinus Carolint 

 ana, Walt). 10 to 40 feet. Bushy, gnarled, shapeless, often 

 leaning, tree, with flattened head of long, zigzag branches, 

 drooping in thread-like, supple twigs. Bark furrowed and 

 rough at base of old trunks; usually smooth, fine-textured, 

 bluish gray, swollen in irregular lines that look like veins 

 under the surface. Branches gray; twigs red, at first silky. 

 Wood brown, hard, heavy, fine textured, difficult to work; 

 used for levers, tool handles, wedges, maul heads, mill 

 cogs, and ox-yokes. Leaves ovate-oblong, often curved to 

 sickle-shape, with long point, double saw-toothed margin and 

 bounded base, above short petiole. Flowers monoecious, in 

 April; staminate in drooping, lateral catkins; pistillate in 

 terminal racemes, with green scales and red stigmas. Fruit 

 paired nutlets, with wings, leaf -like, 3-lobed, saw-toothed. 

 Dist.: Along watercourses, in shade of other trees; lower Can- 

 ada to Florida; west to Minnesota and Texas; also in Mexico 

 and Central America. Worthy of planting in parks for its 

 orange and scarlet autumn coloring. 



