596 AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



glossy, while those of iromvood are rough. They are joined to the 

 twig with a short petiole, hardly a fourth of an inch in length. 



The flowers grow in long catkins, staminate ones sometimes more 

 than two inches long, covered with fringed scales. The pistillate catkins 

 faC usually shorter. Hornbeam blooms in April and May and its fruit 

 ripens in August and September. The seed is a small nut equipped 

 with balloon-like wings, intended for wind distribution. The seeds are 

 often carried, rolled, and tumbled considerable distances. They keep 

 on going until their wings are torn off or wear out, or until they become 

 inextricably entangled among twigs or other obstacles. Comparatively 

 few of the seeds ever find lodgment in situations suitable for germina- 

 tion. Consequently, hornbeam is scarce. 



It is not easy to state the average size of the hornbeam, though it is 

 usually small and never very large. Sometimes it reaches a height of 

 fifty or sixty feet and a diameter of two or more, but such sizes are 

 unusual. Trees a foot hi diameter and forty feet high are more common. 

 The foliage is thin, and the tree is satisfied to grow in shade, provided 

 the shadows are not too dense. The leaves must have a little sunshine, 

 and the flecks that fall through the open spaces in the forest canopy 

 high above, suffice. The hornbeam makes no effort to overtop its 

 fellow trees; but when it grows in the open, as on a rocky bank or ridge, 

 where it catches the full light, the crown puts on more leaves, and multi- 

 plies its branches, and it is no longer the lean tree which some of the 

 Indians called it. Forest grown specimens produce clear trunks, but 

 those in the open are limby almost to the ground. 



Hornbeam has neither smell nor taste. It burns well, the embers 

 glowing brightly in still air. The weight of a cubic foot of seasoned wood 

 is fifty-one pounds. It is strong, hard, heavy, tough, and exceedingly 

 durable when exposed to variable weather, or when in contact with the 

 soil. It takes a beautiful polish. Trees more than a foot in diameter 

 are often found to be hollow. 



The wood is strong, hard, tough, durable in contact with the soil ; 

 heartwood light brown, tinged with red, or often nearly white; thick, 

 pale sapwood which generally does not change to heart for forty or fifty 

 years. The annual rings are not uniform in appearance. Some are 

 easily distinguishable, while others are vague. This variation is due to 

 the irregular development of the dark summerwood in the outer portion 

 of the rings. It is at times distinct and again is hardly discernible. 



The wood is diffuse-porous, and the pores are too small to be easily 

 seen by the naked eye. The medullary rays are small and obscure. 

 In quarter-sawed wood they show as a silvery gloss, but the appearance 

 is too monotonous to be attractive. Neither is there striking figure 



