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brown, lustrous, close-fitting, not peeling away in 

 shreds like other birches. It is noticeably marked with 

 horizontal lines of dots (lenticels). The leaves, usually 

 about three inches long, are soft and tender, ovate or 

 oblong-ovate, with heart-shaped bases and tapering 

 points. On the lower portions of the branches they are 

 two together, but near the ends occur alternately. They 

 are straight-veined, finely serrate, of a bright, shining 

 green on the uppersides, but paler beneath. Early in 

 the spring this tree flowers, and if you come upon it 

 then, all lace hung with its golden catkins, you will 

 surely have to stop and let your delighted eyes rove 

 over such exquisite beauty. These pendant golden 

 catkins contain the staminate or pollen-bearing flowers. 

 The fruit-bearing or pistillate catkins are erect and 

 rather inconspicuous. The fruic is about an inch long, 

 cylindrical, erect, with rounded ends and spreading, 

 resinous scales. On old trees the bark has somewhat 

 of a grayish cast and the lovely smoothness of the 

 younger trees is broken into scaly plates, loose at one 

 end, and scaling off in large sheets. I love to look 

 upon the lustrous bark of the young cherry birch. 



Carya amara. (Swamp Hickory. Bitter nut. No. 

 108.) As you go southerly from the Cryptomerias, 

 there is an extremely interesting tree that stands at the 

 bend of the path where it turns to the east at the first 

 fork, south of the Cryptomerias. The tree is a hickory 

 and a very interesting one, for, so far as I know, it is 

 the only one of its kind in the Park. That you may find 

 it without fail, the path, as it bends easterly, passes over 

 an arm of the pool. 



