294 CARPINUS 



C. BETULUS, Linnceus. COMMON HORNBEAM. 



A tree 50 to 80 ft. high, pyramidal when young, but ultimately forming 

 a rounded or somewhat elongated head with the ends of the branches 

 pendulous ; trunk grey and often beautifully fluted ; young shoots clothed more 

 or less with pale hairs, which mostly soon fall away. Leaves oval or inclined 

 to ovate, i\ to 3^ ins. long, i to 2 ins. wide ; the base rounded or heart- 

 shaped, one side often longer than the other ; short-pointed at the apex, 

 unequally or doubly toothed ; dark green and at first downy on the midrib 

 above ; under-surface more downy, especially on the midrib and the ten to 

 thirteen pairs of veins, both sides becoming nearly or quite smooth by autumn ; 

 stalk 5- to \ in. long. Male catkins li ins. long. Fruiting catkins \\ to 3 ins. 

 long, furnished with large, conspicuous three-lobed bracts, the middle lobe 

 i to i\ ins. long, often toothed. They are produced in pairs facing each 

 other, each with an ovate, ribbed nut at the base, in. long. 



Native of Europe and Asia Minor ; indigenous to the south-east and 

 east of England. A well-grown hornbeam is one of our handsomest trees, 

 the foliage turning yellow in autumn ; more graceful than the beech, for 

 which many people mistake it. It is, of course, distinct in the duller, 

 more conspicuously toothed leaves, and in the ridged or fluted trunk, and 

 the fruiting arrangement is quite different. The timber is hard, almost 

 bony, and is valued for making those intricate parts of the pianoforte which 

 convey the movement from the key to the hammer that strikes the strings. 

 Mr Elwes describes it as "the hardest, heaviest } and toughest" of our 

 native woods. In earlier times hornbeams were largely coppiced and 

 pollarded for the supply of firewood, as may be seen by the old pollards 

 that cover so much of Epping Forest. Sir J. E. Smith says that this tree 

 formed the principal part of that and other forests which once lay to the 

 north and east of London. The hornbeam is a useful hedge plant, and 

 hedges of it may often be seen in old-established nurseries, planted originally 

 for shelter. In this clipped state it retains its dead leaves until spring, like 

 the beech. 



Var. ASPLENIFOLIA (syn. laciniata). Leaves deeply and regularly double- 

 toothed, the primary teeth large enough to be termed lobes. 



Var. CARPINIZZA (C. Carpinizza, Kitaibet). A wild variety, native of 

 Transylvania, differing in the more .distinctly heart-shaped base of the leaf, 

 and in the fewer (seven to nine) veins. Lobes of female bract almost 

 entire. 



Var. COLUMNARIS. A slender, spire-like tree, very striking and elegant. 



Var. HORIZONTALIS. Discovered growing wild by M. Jouin of the Simon- 

 Louis establishment at Metz, and described by him as flat-topped, like Cratsegus 

 Crus-galli. 



Var. INCISA, Alton (quercifolia, Desfontaines). With some similarity to 

 var. asplenifolia, this differs in having smaller and especially shorter leaves, 

 coarsely and irregularly toothed, and only about six pairs of veins. 



Var. PENDULA. A weeping form ; the one known as PENDULA DERVAESII 

 is still more elegant. 



Var. PYRAMIDALIS. This has erect branches like columnaris, but is not so 

 slender a tree. With age it acquires much the habit of an old Irish yew. A 

 fine specimen grows in the Solferino Square at Rouen. 



Other varieties named " purpurea," " rubra," " marmorea," and " variegata " 

 are variously coloured in the way their names imply, but, so far as I have 

 observed, they have little or nothing to recommend them. 



