CHAPTER XXII: THE HORNBEAMS 



Family Betulace^ 



I. Genus OSTRYA Scop. 



Small trees with very hard wood and scaly bark. Leaves 

 simple, alternate, ovate, deciduous. Flowers small, monoecious, 

 both in catkins. Fruits conical, hop-like, of many nuts, each one 

 in an inflated sac. 



KEY TO SPECIES 



A. Leaves 3 to 5 inches long, tapering to point. 



(O. Virginiana) hop hornbeam 

 AA. Leaves i to 2 inches long, rounded at point. 



(0. Knowltoni) iron wood 



2. Genus CARPINUS, Linn. 



Small tree, with smooth, grey bark, showing swellings like 

 veins. Leaves simple, alternate, oblong-lanceolate. Flowers, both 

 sorts in aments, moncEcious. Fruit, paired nutlets, each with a 

 3-lobed wing. (C. Caroliniana) Hornbeam 



The hornbeams, or ironwoods, are little trees hiding in the 

 shadows of the forest. They are of slow growth; their wood is 

 very hard. They bear their flowers in catkins, the two sorts 

 upon the same tree: the staminate axillary, the pistillate terminal. 

 The seeds are formed for wind distribution. Birches, alders, and 

 that shrubby genus Corylus, the hazels, are associated by family 

 characters. America has five of the six genera that compose the 

 family. 



As a rule the hardest woods come from tropical forests. 

 Witness the lignum vitae, hardest of woods, which grows in 

 Florida, the West Indies, and northern South America; the 

 mahogany of Central America; the rosewood from Brazil; and 



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