THE ALDER, ETC. 



103 



35 feet high, and has light, slender branches ; these, 



when covered with thick foliage and the hoplike fruit, 



are extremely graceful. 



The hornbeam, which is also called 

 Hornbeam, or 



Water Beech, blue or water beech, is common on 

 Carpinvs the banks of streams from New Eng- 



Caroliniana. , , -. r . 



land to Minnesota and southward. 

 It may be distinguished from the hop hornbeam by 

 its little three-pointed leaflet or bract, which is placed 

 in pairs base to base with the small nuts ; 

 these leaflets form an elongated cluster, 

 which remains hanging on the tree until 

 late in the autumn. The leaf stem 

 is about half an inch long, and the 

 leaf itself, fuzzy when young but 

 soon nearly smooth, resembles 

 that of the hop hornbeam, except 

 that it is rather unevenly toothed. 

 The bark of this tree is gray, 

 ^ smooth, and not unlike that of 

 the beech, although it has in addi- 

 tion occasional ridges which mark 

 the trunk perpendicularly. The wood is very hard, 

 and whitish. The water beech is a 6low grower, 

 and rarely attains a height of over 20 feet, except 

 in the South among the Alleghanies. In the moun- 

 tains of New Hampshire it is quite absent. 



Hornbeam. 



