218 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



to linear-lanceolate on the upper, brown or often red below the middle, membrana- 

 ceous, lustrous, I'-l^' long. Flowers opening when the leaves are about one third 

 grown; staminate in globose heads 1' in diameter, on slender hairy peduncles about 2' 

 long; pistillate in usually 2-flowered clusters, on short clavate hoary peduncles \'-$' 

 long. Fruit: involucres about ' in length, on stout hairy club-shaped peduncles 

 l'_|' long, fully grown at midsummer, and puberulous, dark orange-green, and cov- 

 ered by slender straight or slightly recurved prickles red above the middle, be- 

 coming at maturity in the autumn light brown, tomentose, with much recurved 

 pubescent prickles, persistent on the branch after opening late into the winter; 

 nut about ' long. 



A tree, usually 70-80 but exceptionally 120 high, sending up from the roots 

 numerous small stems sometimes extending into broad thickets round the parent 

 tree, in the forest with a long comparatively slender stem free of branches for more 

 than half its length, and short branches forming a narrow head, in open situations 



short-stemmed, with a trunk often 3-4 in diameter, and numerous limbs spreading 

 gradually and forming a broad compact round-topped head of slender slightly 

 drooping branches clothed with short leafy laterals, and branchlets pale green and 

 coated with long soft caducous hairs when they first appear, olive-green or orange- 

 colored during their first summer and conspicuously marked by oblong bright 

 orange lenticels, gradually growing red, bright reddish brown during their first 

 winter, darker brown in their second season and ultimately ashy gray. Winter- 

 buds puberulous, especially toward the apex, |' to nearly V long, about \' broad, the 

 inner scales hirsute on the inner surface and along the margins and when fully 

 grown often 1' long, lustrous, brown above the middle, and reddish below. Bark 

 \'-ty thick, with a smooth light steel gray surface. Wood hard, strong, tough, very 

 close-grained, not durable, difficult to season, dark or often light red, with thin 

 nearly white sapwood of 20-30 layers of annual growth; largely used in the manu- 

 facture of chairs, shoe-lasts, plane-stocks, the handles of tools, and for fuel. The 

 sweet nuts are gathered and sold in the markets of Canada and of some of the 

 western and middle states. 



Distribution. Rich uplands and mountain slopes, often forming nearly pure 



