THE BIRCH FAMILY. n- 



THE BIRCH FAMILY. 



Bchildcccc. 

 Trees or shrubs, 7vith simple, alternate pctiolcd leaves havuig strai"-/it 

 reifis, and inomjce'ious flowers whie/i grow in aments. 



AMERICAN HORNBEAM. BLUE OR WATER BEECH. 

 IRONWOOD. 



Carp\nus Caro/iniuna. 



Tniiik and branches: ridged. Bark : smooth; greyish black, and irregularly 

 and vertically lined with stripes of dull grey. Brainhlets : slender; when young, 

 brownish purple, terminating in green-bronze; those that are older, with an ashy hue. 

 Leaz'cs : with slender petioles; ovate-lanceolate, or oblong, pointed at the apex and 

 rounded or slightly cordate at the base, slightly one-sided; sharply and unevenly 

 serrate ; ribs straight ; pubescent ; especially so in their axils ; above smooth. 

 Fruit: growing in a green, elongated, drooping cluster. The small nuts borne 

 singly at the base of two opposite, halberd-shaped, three-lobed bracts. 



When along the stream's bank the growth is thick and close and various 

 forms of vegetation jostle with each other in the struggle for existence, we 

 often see standing out clearly among them all, the boughs of this tree hung 

 with its long graceful clusters of fruit. Its preference really is to lean over 

 the stream. In driving from Johnston City to Roan Mountain station, in 

 Tennessee, the tree almost seemed to map out the way and considerably 

 diverted the attention from the perils of the road. The trap we drove in 

 and the horses were very old and altogether out of joint ; the charioteer 

 youthful but not without skill ; and seventeen times in sixteen miles we 

 crossed and recrossed the Doe river. 



HOP=HORNBEAM. LEVER=WOOD. IRON=WOOD. 



Ostrp I I ^irgi)iiana. 



FAMILY SHAPE HEIGHT RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Birch, Croiun, round ; branches., 20-60 /eet. Florida a7id Texas north- April, May. 



drooping at the ends. 7vard afid westward. Fruit : July-Sept. 



Bark: brownish, furrowed vertically, and scaly. Branc/ilels : purplish brown, 

 and dotted with grey; lustrous. Leaves : with short, pubescent petioles; oblong- 

 lanceolate; taper-pointed at the apex and rounded at the base ; often unequal ; 

 doubly and sharply serrate; dark yellow-green above ; almost smooth; lighter 

 coloured below and tufted in the axils of the straight veins. Flirioers : growing in 

 catkins; the staminate ones about two inches long, with scales fringed on tlicir 

 margins. Pistillate catkins: shorter. Fruit: borne in long, drooping, hop-like 

 strobiles, with entire, overlapping scales, or sacs which are bristly at their bases, 

 Nuts ; flattened. 



