CARPENTERIA CARPINUS 293 



not toothed, smooth and bright green above, covered with a pale soft felt 

 beneath ; stalk J in. long, or almost absent. Flowers fragrant, 2 to 3 ins. 

 in diameter, pure white, produced during June and July in a terminal 

 cluster, three to seven flowers together; petals five, roundish; calyx 

 downy, with five ovate, pointed lobes : stamens very numerous, their 

 yellow anthers making a conspicuous centre to the flower. 



Native of California; discovered by Col. Fremont in the "forties" 

 of last century; introduced to Europe about 1880, and first flowered in 

 this country by Miss Jekyll at Godalming in 1885. In places where it 

 thrives, it is one of the most splendid acquisitions from the Californian 

 flora. It is not hardy at Kew except against a wall, and under glass it 

 is one of the most susceptible of all plants to injury by London fog. In 

 the brighter, sunnier parts of England it succeeds, as in the Cambridge 

 Botanic Garden, where, in spite of severe frosts, it thrives admirably on 

 the sunny side of a plant-house. It may not be naturally a very long- 

 lived plant. It should be raised from seed. Most nearly allied to 

 Philadelphus, it differs in its evergreen leaves and solitary style. 



CARPINUS. HORNBEAM. CORYLACE^. 



Some sixteen or eighteen species of hornbeam are scattered over the 

 temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, scarcely half of which are 

 in cultivation. They are deciduous trees, rarely of the largest size, with 

 zigzag twigs and alternate, conspicuously parallel-ribbed leaves. The 

 flowers are unisexual, produced on the same tree, but in separate 

 catkins. The pendulous male catkins come on the old wood; the 

 females terminate the young shoots. The male flower consists of 

 numerous stamens produced in the axil of a scale. The female 

 inflorescence is stalked and at first erect, with the flowers in pairs 

 within each bract. In the fruiting state it elongates and becomes 

 pendent, the seed being enclosed in .a ribbed nut at the base of the 

 enlarged bract. 



Hornbeams are hardy trees, and handsome, especially in summer 

 when laden with pendent fruit clusters. As a park tree none is so 

 valuable as our native species, but for gardens some of the newer Chinese 

 and Japanese hornbeams are very attractive. They thrive in any good 

 loam, and are at home on chalky soils. All the species should be raised 

 from seed, but the rarer ones can be grafted on common hornbeam, as 

 also must its own varieties be. There are two distinct sections of the 

 genus, viz. : 



1. CARPINUS proper. Scales of male flowers ovate, scarcely stalked. 

 Bracts of the fruiting catkins loosely overlapping, and so little infolded 

 as to leave the nut exposed C. Betulus, etc. 



2. DISTEGOCARPUS. Scales of male flowers narrower, stalked. Bracts 

 of the fruiting catkins closely packed and overlapping, completely enclosing 

 the nut. Two of the following species belong to this section C. cordata 

 and C. japonica. 



