AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



One of its most common uses is as fence posts. Few lines of fence 

 are built exclusively of hornbeam posts, because not enough can be had 

 in one place; but posts are cut singly or a few together from Maine to 

 Arkansas, and the aggregate number is large. The wood is said to out- 

 last the heartwood of white oak when in contact with the ground, and 

 it is so strong that posts of small size stand the pull of wires or the weight 

 of planks or pickets. 



Hornbeam is of slow growth and there is little reason to believe 

 that it will ever be seriously considered by timber growers; but it will 

 doubtless win its way to favor as an ornamental tree. It has been 

 planted in city parks in New England and elsewhere, and its form, foliage, 

 and habits are much liked. The pale green pods or cones they are not 

 exactly the one or the other remain a long time on the branches and 

 are delicately ornamental until after the autumn frosts change their 

 green into brown. Then comes the flying time of the balloon seeds, and 

 that is an interesting period in parks and yards where the tree's habits 

 may be closely studied. 



KNOWLTON HORNBEAM (Oslrya knowltoni) is interesting chiefly on account of 

 its extremely limited range, and its far removal from all its kin. It is an exile in a 

 distant country. It has thus far been found only on the southern slope of the canyon 

 of the Colorado river in Arizona, about seventy miles north of Flagstaff. It occurs at 

 an elevation of 6,000 or 7,000 feet above the sea. Trees are twenty or thirty feet high 

 and twelve or eighteen inches in diameter, and trunks usually divide a foot or two 

 above the ground into three or more branches, which are of ten crooked and contorted. 

 Such sizes and forms could not be of much value for anything but fuel, even if abun- 

 dant. The heart is light reddish-brown, sapwood thin. The leaves are round instead 

 of pointed at the apex, as with the other hornbeam ; but the flowers and fruit are much 

 the same. Botanists speculate in vain as to how this species happens to be so far 

 removed from other members of its family. 



