532 ON SEEDLINGS 



scaly above, floccose along the midrib and base of principal nerves 

 with dirty white hairs, otherwise glabrous, deep green and shining 

 above, paler beneath, alternately penninerved, finely reticulate ; 

 petioles terete, glabrous, obsoletely channelled on the upper side, 

 scaly when young, tapering upwards from a stoutish base ; stipules 

 lanceolate, acute, scaly on the back, soon becoming re volute and 

 caducous ; leaf-buds viscid. 



Nos. 1 and 2. Small, broadly ovate, acute, or cuspidate, irre- 

 gularly and acutely serrate, slightly unequal at the base. 



No. 3. Broadly subcordate, acute, irregularly and acutely serrate. 



Nos. 4 and 5. Ovate-subcordate. 



Ultimate leaves cordate, obtuse, cuspidate, minutely and mucro- 

 nately serrate-dentate ; larger nerves subincurved. 



Carpinus Betulus, L. 



Ovary of two carpels, one-celled or imperfectly two-celled in a 

 very young state, with two ovules in one or both of the cells ; ovules 

 pendulous, anatropous ; micropyle superior, close to the hilum. 



Fruit a nut, ovate, compressed, umbilicate at the base, tipped 

 with the persistent, superior, perianth -segments (which are unequal 

 in size and irregular in number), strongly eight- to nine-ribbed, 

 glabrous, green, ultimately yellowish ; endocarp bony ; pericarp thin, 

 brown, membranous. 



Seed obovate, compressed, pendulous from the top of the cavity, 

 entirely occupying the interior of the nut, and conforming to its 

 shape ; radicle superior, close to the hilum ; raphe ventral on one 

 edge of the seed, sometimes removable ; chalaza ventral, a little 

 above the base on one angle, sending off a nerve to the base which 

 forks there, one branch passing along each side of the apex of the 

 cotyledons, besides four on each face of the seed which occasionally 

 fork. These nerves however are not always constant in number, 

 and may be different on the two sides of the same seed. 



Embryo straight, large, and occupying the whole of the interior 

 of the seed to which it conforms ; cotyledons obovate or oval, applied 

 face to face, colourless, shining, fleshy, slightly convex on the back, 

 entire at both ends, or sometimes emarginate at the apex ; radicle 

 superior, slightly protruded beyond the cotyledons. 



Seedling (fig. 667). 



Primary root short, tapering, dark-coloured, giving off small 

 wiry rootlets, flexuose. 



Hypocotyl erect, terete, soon becoming woody, flexuose, shortly 

 pubescent, brownish, 3-4-5 mm. long. 



