BETULACE^E 



3. Flowers opening in autumn from aments of the year. 



215 



6. Alnua maritima, Nutt. Alder. 



Leaves oblong, ovate, or obovate, acute, acuminate, or rounded at the apex, grad- 

 ually narrowed and wedge-shaped at the base, remotely serrate, with minute in- 

 curved glandular teeth, and somewhat thickened on the slightly undulate margins, 





when they unfold, light green tinged with red, hairy on the midribs, veins, and 

 petioles, and coated above with pale scurfy pubescence, at maturity dark green, 

 very lustrous, and covered below by minute pale glandular dots, 3'^4' long, l^'-2' 

 wide, with stout yellow midribs and primary veins prominent and glandular on the 

 upper side and slightly puberulous below; their petioles stout, yellow, glandular, 

 flattened and grooved on the upper side, '-' long; stipules oblong, acute, about 

 \' long, dark reddish brown, caducous. Flowers: aments appearing in July on 

 branches of the year and fully grown in August or early in September; staminate in 

 short scurfy-pubescent glandular-pitted racemes on slender peduncles sometimes 

 ^' in length from the axils of upper leaves; pistillate usually solitary from those of 

 the lower leaves; staminate aments covered at first with ovate acute dark green 

 very lustrous scales slightly ciliate on the margins and furnished at the apex with 

 minute red points, at maturity l'-2^' long, \' to nearly ^ thick, with dark orange- 

 brown scales raised on slender stalks, and bright orange-colored stamens; pistillate 

 aments on stout pubescent peduncles, bright red at the apex and light green below 

 before opening, with ovate acute scales slightly ciliate on the margins, about \' long 

 when the styles protrude from between the scales, beginning to enlarge the follow- 

 ing spring. Fruit attaining full size at midsummer and then stalked, broadly ovate, 

 rounded and depressed at the base, gradually narrowed to the rather obtuse apex, 

 about I' long and ^' broad, with thin lustrous scales slightly thickened and crcnately 

 lobed at the apex, turning dark reddish brown or nearly black and opening late in 

 the autumn and remaining on the branches until after the flowers unfold the follow- 

 ing year; nut oblong-obovate, gradually narrowed and apiculate at the apex, with a 

 thin membranaceous border. 



A tree, occasionally 30 high, with a tall straight trunk 4'-5' in diameter, small 

 spreading branches forming a narrow round-topped head, slender slightly zigzag 



