Ostrya 541 



pubescence. Leaves (Plate 201, Fig. 1 1) about 3 inches long by if inch wide, ovate, 

 shortly acuminate at the apex, unequal and rounded at the base ; margin sharply 

 bi-serrate and ciliate ; covered above and below with appressed pubescence, 

 spreading more or less over the whole surface, and not confined to the midrib and 

 nerves, as in Carpinus Betulus, and with minute axil tufts on the lower surface ; 

 nerves twelve to fifteen pairs ; petiole i to f inch long, appressed pubescent ; stipules 

 persistent during summer. Nutlet ovoid, ^ inch long, crowned by a tuft of hairs ; 

 calyx-limb obsolete. 



In winter the twigs are slender, zigzag, more or less pubescent. No true 

 terminal bud is formed, the apex of the branchlet falling off in summer and leaving 

 a minute circular scar at the side of the uppermost axillary bud. Buds small, ^^ inch 

 long, ovoid, viscid, set obliquely on prominent leaf- cushions ; scales 6 to 9, 

 imbricated, greenish with a dark brown margin, more or less pubescent. Leaf-scar 

 semicircular, with two bundle-dots above and one group of three smaller dots below. 



Ostrya carpinifolia reaches its most westerly point in the extreme south-eastern 

 corner of France, where it occupies a few isolated stations in the Basses-Alpes and 

 Alpes-Maritimes Departments. In the forest of Miolans,^ in the Basses-Alpes, 

 which is mainly composed of Pinus sylvestris, it is found on a northern slope, over 

 an area of about 400 acres, occurring chiefly as undergrowth and ascending to about 

 2700 feet altitude. In the Alpes-Maritimes it descends in some places to nearly sea- 

 level. It extends eastward through Southern Switzerland, the Tyrol (where,^ near 

 Botzen, it ascends to 3500 feet altitude), Carinthia, and Lower Styria to Southern 

 Hungary, and spreads southwards through Carniola, Croatia, and the Balkan States 

 to Greece, growing usually in rocky situations, more commonly on limestone than on 

 other formations. It is common throughout Italy and Sicily in the oak and 

 chestnut regions, ascending to 3800 feet elevation ; and forms woods of con- 

 siderable extent around Lake Como, especially above Lecco, on the shores of Lake 

 Lugano, and at Gaudria and Salvatore.^ It occurs as a rare tree in Corsica and 

 Sardinia. It is also met with in Asia Minor and in the Lebanon. It attains about 

 a hundred years of age; and according to Pard^' produces coppice shoots like the 

 hornbeam. (A. H.) 



Cultivation 



It was introduced into cultivation in England some time before 1724, as it is 

 mentioned in Furber's Nursery Catalogue published in that year. Though an orna- 

 mental tree which attains a good size and is perfectly hardy, it has always been very 

 rare in this country. According to Mouillefert " its growth is about equal to that 

 of the Hornbeam. I have raised plants from French seed which grow faster on 

 my soil than those of the hornbeam, and seem at least as hardy, as they were 



Fliche, Bull. Soc. Bot. France, xlvi. 8 (1899). Cf. also ibid. xxxv. 160 (1888). 



' Christ, Hore de la Suisse, 238 (1907). In the same work, p. 507, it is stated that this species has been found in the fossil 

 state in miocene beds at Ardeche ; and another species, probably a mere variety, has been found in the same strata at Var. 



' Arb. Nat. des Barres, 281 (1906). 



Principales Essences Forestiires, 148, note {1903). At Grignon in France, planted together in the arboretum, on 

 calcareous soil with a chalky subsoil, at thirty years old the Hornbeam is 1 1 metres high by 70 centimetres in girth at I metre 

 above the ground ; and the Ostrya \i\ metres by 73 centimetres in girth. It bore here without injury the severe winter of 1879. 



