MYRICACEJE. (SWEET-GALE FAMILY.) ' 457 



6. CARPINUS, L. HORNBEAM. IRON-WOOD. 



Sterile flowers in drooping cylindrical catkins, consisting of several stamens 

 in the axil of a simple and entire scale-like bract : filaments very short, mostly 

 2-forked, the forks bearing 1-celled (half-) anthers with hairy tips. Fertile flow- 

 ers several, spiked in a sort of loose terminal catkin, with small deciduous bracts, 

 each subtending a pair of flowers, as in Ostrya ; but the involucre-like bractlets 

 are open, enlarged in fruiting and foliaceous, merely subtending the small ovate 

 several-nerved nut. Trees, or tall shrubs, with a smooth and close gray bark, 

 in this and in the slender buds and straight-veined leaves resembling the Beech ; 

 the leaf-buds and the inflorescence as in Ostrya, (The ancient Latin name.) 



1. C. Americana, Michx. (AMERICAN HORNBEAM. BLUE or WATER 

 BEECH.) Leaves ovate-oblong, pointed, sharply doubly serrate, soon nearly 

 smooth ; bractlets 3-lobed, halberd-shaped, sparingly cut-toothed on one side, 

 acute. Along streams: common. Tree or shrub 10 - 20 high, with a 

 ridged trunk, and very hard whitish wood ; also called IRON-WOOD. 



ORDER 103. JMYRICACE^E. (SWEET-GALE FAMILY.) 



Monoecious or dioecious shrubs, with both kinds of flowers in short scaly 

 catkins, and resinous-dotted often fragrant leaves, differing from the 

 Birch Family chiefly by the 1-celled ovary with a single erect orthotropous 

 ovule, and the drupe-like nut. Involucre none. Consists chiefly of the 

 typical genus, from which our Sweet-Fern is not sufficiently distinct. 



1. MY RICA, L. BAYBERRY. WAX-MYRTLE. 



Flowers chiefly dioecious : the sterile in oblong or cylindrical, the fertile in 

 ovoid catkins, from axillary scaly buds ; both destitute of calyx and corolla, 

 solitary under a scale-like bract and with a pair of bractlets. Stamens 2 - 8 : 

 filaments somewhat united below : anthers 2-celled. Ovary with 2-4 scales 

 at its base, and 2 thread-like stigmas. Fruit a small globular nut, or dry drupe, 

 coated with resinous grains or wax. (MvpiKrj, the ancient name of the Tama- 

 risk or some other shrub ; perhaps from /zupt<o, to perfume.) 



1. M. Gale, L. (SWEET GALE.) Leaves wedge-lanceolate, serrate towards 

 the apex; pale, later than the flowers; sterile catkins closely clustered; nuts in im- 

 bricated heads, 2-winged by the two thick ovate scales which coalesce with its 

 base. Wet borders of ponds, New England to Virginia in the mountains, 

 Penn. to Wisconsin, and northward. April. Shrub 3 - 5 high. (Eu.) 



2. M. cerifera, L. (BAYBERRT. WAX-MYRTLE.) Leaves oblong-lanceo- 

 late, narrowed at the base, entire or wavy-toothed towards the apex, shining and 

 resinous-dotted both sides, somewhat preceding the flowers ; sterile catkins . scattered, 

 oblong ; scales wedge-shaped at the base ; nuts scattered and naked, bony, and 

 incrusted with white wax. Sandy soil on and near the sea-shore : also on 

 Lake Erie. May. Sftrub 3 - 8 high, with fragrant leaves : the catkins ses- 

 sile along the last year's branches ; the fruits sometimes persistent for 2 or 3 

 years. 



