SWEET-GALE FAMILY. 323 



Obs. A tree of very slow growth, and does not attain to a very great 

 size. It is readily distinguished by its peculiarly ridged trunk. The 

 rich colors of its leaves in the fall add much to the variety and beauty 

 of the autumnal scenery. The wood is exceedingly hard and close- 

 grained, and is well suited for turned work, and for such purposes as 

 require great compactness and solidity. 



6. OS 'TRY A, Michel. HOP HORNBEAM. 



[Greek, Ostrevn, a shell, or scale, in allusion to the struoture v of the fruit.] 



STAMINATE FL. nearly as in Carpinus. PISTILLATE FL. in terminal, 

 loosely imbricated aments with small deciduous bracts. S:ales of t/ie in- 

 volucre in pairs, hairy at base, membranaceous, uniting by their margins 

 and enclosing 1-2 flowers. Ovary 2-celled ; 2-ovuled, crowned with 

 the entire and ciliate border of the calyx; stigmas 2, subsessile, elongat- 

 ed, filiform. Fruit in a strobile (or cone), formed of the scales of the 

 involucre, which are membranaceous, nerved, and coalesced into utricles 

 or little sacs. Nuts solitary within the utricles, compressed, ovate-lan- 

 ceolate, smooth, 1-seeded. Slender trees, with brownish, slightly fur- 

 rowed bark, and flowers appearing with the leaves. 



1. 0. Virgin'ica, Willd. Leaves ovate-oblong, acuminate, sharply ser- 

 rate ; cones ovoid^oblong ; involucres thickly beset with tawny bristle? 

 at the base. 

 VIRGINIAN OSTRYA. Hop Horn-beam. Iron Wood. Lever-wood. 



Stem 20-40 or 50 feet high, and 5 - 8 or 10 inches in diameter. Leaves 2-4 inches long 

 on short petioles. Staminate aments an inch to an inch and a half long. Pistillate amenta 

 mostly terminal and solitary, 1 to near 2 inches long, slender and, while young, linear ; 

 flowers in pairs, 3ach pair subtended by an ovate-lanceolate tawny caducous bract ; each 

 ilower contained in a membranaceous sac formed by the united scales of the involucre, 

 the sac enlarging and becoming a bladder-like envelope of the nut, slightly inflated, ovate, 

 imbricated, and forming altogether, at maturity, a pedunculate pendulous cone, about the 

 size of, and much resembling, the Common Hop. 



Woodlands : New England to Carolina. Fr. April - May. .Fr. Sept. 



Obs. The wood of this small tree is remarkably firm and tough ; and 

 although neither very common nor very important, it may be well, per- 

 haps, for the intelligent farmer to know what it is when he meets with 

 it. According to Mr. EMERSON, it is known by the name of Lever-wood 

 in New England. 



ORDER LXVIII. MYRICA'CE^E. (SWEET-GALE FAMILY.) 



Shrubs with alternate, simple, resinous-dotted often aromatic, mostly stipulate leaves and 

 monoecious or dioacious flowers in small aments, the pistillate globose or ovoid ; ovary 

 1-celled with a single erect ovule, surrounded by persistent scales ; fruit a dry nut or some- 

 times drupe-like and covered with a waxy secretion ; embryo without albumen. 



1. MYRI'CA, L. BAYBERRY. 



[The ancient name of some shrub.] 

 Flowers dioecious. STAMINATE FL. in oblong or cylindrical aments. 



