FAGACEAE (BEECH FAMILY) 337 



3. A. incana (L.) Moench. (SPECKLED or HOARY A.) Shrub or small 

 tree (rarely 6 in. high); leaves broadly elliptical to ovate, mostly rounded at 

 base, sharply and doubly serrate, the upper surface dark green and with impressed 

 nerves, the lower mostly downy at least on the nerves and ferruginous to glau- 

 cous ; stipules lanceolate; fruit (samara) orbicular. bvvanips and borders of 

 streams, Nfd. to Sask., s. to Pa., n. la., and Neb.; the common Alder along our 

 northern borders. (Eurasia.) 



4. A. rugbsa (Du lioi) Spreng. (SMOOTH A.) Shrub or small tree ; leaves 

 obnvate, acute at base, sharply and almost regularly serrate with minute teeth, 

 thickish, green both sides, rarely impressed-nerved, smooth or sparingly pubes- 

 cent beneath; stipules oval ; fruit ovate. (A. serrulata Willd.) Me. to Fla. 

 and Tex., rarely inland to Minn.; mostly on the coastal plain northw., more 

 general southw. Many shrubs near the n. limits of this range appear inter- 

 mediate between this and the last species. 



5. A. VULGARIS Hill. (BLACK A. of Europe.) Tree with dark green 

 flabellate-obovate or suborbicular coarsely dentate glutinous leaves. Escaped 

 from cultivation and locally established, Nfd. to N. J. and Pa. (Introd. from Eu.) 



* * * Flowers in autumn {Sept.} from catkins of the season ; the fertile mostly 

 solitary in the axils of the leaves, ripening the fruit a year later; fruit 

 wingless. 



6. A. maritima (Marsh.) Muhl. (SEA-SIDE A.) Glabrous ; leaves oblong, 

 ovate, or obovate, with a wedge-shaped base, slender-petioled, sharply serrulate, 

 bright green, or rather rusty beneath ; fruiting catkins large, ovoid or ellipsoid 

 (1.6-2.5 cm. long). Del. and Md., near the coast; also I. T. A small tree. 



FAGACEAE (BEECH FAMILY) 



Monoecious trees or shrubs, with alternate simple straight-veined leaves, 

 deciduous stipules, the sterile flowers in catkins or capitate clusters, the fertile 

 solitary or slightly clustered, the l-celled and l-seeded nut inclosed (or partly 

 inclosed) in a cupule consisting of more or less consolidated bracts, which 

 become indurated. Ovary 3-7-celled ; ovules 1 or 2 in each cell (only 1 

 ripening); styles 3. Seed with no albumen, filled by the embryo, and with 

 2 integuments. 



* Sterile flowers in a small bead on drooping peduncles. 



1. FagUS. Cupule 2-flowered, 4-valved, containing 2 sharply triangular nuts. 



* * Sterile flowers in slender catkins. 



2. Castanea. Cupule 2-4-flowered, forming a prickly hard bur, 2-4-valved when ripe. 



3. Quercus. Cupule 1-flowered, scaly and without valves ; nut terete. 



1. FAGUS [Tourn.] L. BEECH 



Sterile flowers with deciduous scale-like bracts ; calyx bell-shaped, 6-7-cleft ; 

 stamens 8-10 ; filaments slender ; anthers 2-celled. Fertile flowers usually in 

 pairs at the apex of a short peduncle, invested by numerous awl-shaped bract- 

 lets, the inner coherent at base to form the 4-lobed involucre ; calyx-lobes 6, 

 awl-shaped ; ovary 3-celled with two ovules in each cell ; styles thread-like, 

 stiginatic along the inner side. Nuts usually 2 in each urn-shaped and soft- 

 prickly coriaceous involucre, 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>ayeiv, to eat, in allusion to the esculent nuts.) 



GRAY'S MANUAL 22 



