CUPULIFERuE. (OAK FAMILY.) 455 



Fertile flowers few, usually 3 together in an ovoid scaly prickly involucre : calyx 

 with a 6-16bed border crowning the 3 - 7-celled 6 - 14-ovuled ovary : abortive 

 stamens 5 - 12 : stigmas bristle-shaped, as many as the cells of the ovary. Nuts 

 coriaceous, ovoid, enclosed 2-3 together or solitary in the hard and thick 

 very prickly 4-valved involucre. Cotyledons very thick, somewhat plaited, co- 

 hering together, remaining underground in germination. Leaves strongly 

 straight-veined. Flowers appearing later than the (undivided straight-veined) 

 leaves ; the catkins axillary near the end of the branches, cream-color ; the fer- 

 tile flowers at the ba^e of the upper ones. (The classical name, from that of a 

 town in Thessaly.) 



1. C. V&sca, L. (CHESTNUT.) Leaves oblong-lanceolate, pointed, serrate with 

 coarse pointed teeth, when mature smooth and yreen both sides ; nuts 2 or 3 in 

 each involucre, therefore flattened on one or both sides : in the American tree, 

 var. AMERICANA, Michx., leaves acute at the base, nuts smaller and sweeter. 

 Rocky or hilly woods, Maine to Michigan and Kentucky and southwards, espe- 

 cially along the Alleghanies. June, July. A large tree, with light coarse- 

 grained wood. (Eu.) 



2. C. pumila, Michx. (CHINQUAPIN.) Leaves oblong, acute, serrate with 

 pointed teeth, whitened- downy underneath ; nut solitary, not flattened. Sandy 

 woods, from. (Long Island?) S. Penn. and Ohio, southward, where it abounds. 

 June. Shrub or tree 6 - 20 high. Involucres small, often spiked ; the ovoid 

 pointed nut scarcely half as large as a common chestnut, very sweet. 



3. FAGUS, Tourn. BEECH. 



Sterile flowers in small heads on drooping peduncles, with deciduous scale-like 

 bracts : calyx bell-shaped, 5 - 7-cleft : stamens 8 - 16 : filaments slender : anthers 

 2-celled. Fertile flowers usually in pairs at the apex of a short peduncle, in- 

 vested by numerous awl-shaped bractlets, the inner grown together at their bases 

 to form the 4-lobed involucre : calyx-lobes 6, awl-shaped : ovary 3-celled with 2 

 ovules in each cell : styles 3, thread-like, stigmatic along the inner side. Nuts 

 sharply 3-sided, usually 2 in each urn-shaped and soft-prickly coriaceous involu- 

 cre, which divides to below the middle into 4 valves. Cotyledons thick, folded 

 and somewhat united ; but rising and expanding in germination. Trees, with 

 a close and smooth ash-gray bark, a light horizontal spray, and undivided 

 strongly straight-veined leaves, which are open and convex in the tapering bud, 

 and plaited on the veins. Flowers appearing with the leaves, the yellowish 

 staminate flowers from the lower, the pistillate from the upper axils of the 

 leaves of the season. (The classical Latin name, from (f)dyo>, to eat, in allusion 

 to the esculent nuts.) 



1. P. ferruginea, Ait. (AMERICAN BEECH.) Leaves oblong-ovate, 

 taper-pointed, distinctly and often coarsely toothed ; petioles and midrib soon 

 nearly naked ; prickles of the fruit mostly recurved or spreading. (F. ferru- 

 ginea and F. sylvestris, Michx. f.} Woods: common, especially northward, 

 and along the Alleghanies southward. May. Leaves longer, thinner, and 

 less shining than in the European Beech, most of the silky hairs usually early 

 deciduous ; the very straight veins all running into the salient teeth. 



