OAK FAMILY. 395 



* * Flowers in earliest spring, much before the leaves, both sorts from 

 catkins which have remained naked over winter; wing of fruit narrow 

 and thickish. 



A. serrulata, Willd. SMOOTH A. Common especially S. (Mass, to 

 Minn., and S.); 6-12 high, with obovate smooth or smoothish leaves 

 green both sides and sharply serrate. 



A. incana, Willd. SPECKLED or HOARY A. Common N., along 

 streams ; 8-20 high ; with broadly oval or ovate leaves rounded at base, 

 serrate, and often coarsely toothed, whitened and commonly downy 

 beneath. 



A. g/utfndsa, Willd. Cult, from Eu., under several names, some forms 

 cut-leaved ; leaves round-obovate and scalloped, and finely sharp-toothed, 

 a tuft of down in the axils of the veins beneath, the young growth and 

 petioles glutinous. 



3. CORYLUS, HAZELNUT, FILBERT. (Classical Latin name.) 

 Shrubs, with flowers in early spring preceding the rounded-heart-shaped, 

 doubly serrate, at first downy leaves. Edible nuts ripe in autumn. 



C. Avellana, Linn. EUROPEAN H., FILBERT or COBNUT. Occasionally 

 planted; 6-10 high, with bristly shoots, and smoothish deeply-cleft 

 involucre about the length of the (!' long) oval nut. 



C. Americana, Walt. AMERICAN H. Thickets; 4-6 high, with 

 more downy shoots, leaves, and involucre, the latter open down to the 

 smaller globular nut in the form of a pair of broad cut-toothed leafy 

 bracts. N. Eng. to Dak., and S. 



C. rostrata, Ait. BEAKED H. Thickets and banks, mostly N. ; 2-5 

 high, with more ovate and scarcely heart-shaped leaves, the densely bristly 

 involucre prolonged in a narrow curved tube much beyond the ovoid nut. 



4. OSTRYA, HOP HORNBEAM. (Classical name.) Slender trees, with 

 very hard wood; flowers appearing with the Birch-like leaves, in spring. 



O. Virglnica, Willd. AMERICAN H., IRONWOOD or LEVERWOOD. Tree 



20-50 high, with brownish rough bark, and oblong-ovate taper-pointed 

 sharply doubly-serrate leaves downy beneath, the sacs of the fruit bristly 

 at base. Wood white. Common. 



5. CARPINUS, HORNBEAM. (Ancient Latin name.) Low trees or 

 tall shrubs, with furrowed trunks and very hard wood, the close gray 

 bark and small leaves resembling those of the Beech ; flowers with the 

 leaves, in spring. 



C. Caroliniana, Walt. AMERICAN H., BLUE or WATER BEECH. Banks 

 of streams N. Eng. to Minn., and S.; 10-20 high; with ovate-oblong 

 pointed doubly serrate leaves, becoming smooth, and halberd-3-lobed 

 bracts of the involucre. 



6. QTTERCUS, OAK. (The classical Latin name.) Flowers in spring ; 

 acorns ripe in autumn. Natural hybrids occur. 



1. ANNUAL-FRUITED OAKS, the acorns maturing the autumn of the first 

 year, therefore on the wood of the season, usually in the axil of the 

 leaves, out of which they are often raised on a peduncle ; kernel com- 

 monly sweet-tasted; no bristles on the lobes or teeth of the leaves. 



# WHITE OAKS, with lyrately or sinuately pinnatifid and deciduous leaves. 



+- Leaves not glaucous or white beneath. 



Q. Rbbur, Linn. EUROPEAN or ENGLISH OAK. Large, strong tree ; 

 leaves small, sinuate-lobed, but hardly pinnatifid; acorn oblong, over 1' 



