The Hornbeams 



the ebony from Ceylon, tropical Africa and Cuba. Northern 

 forests, too, furnish some species with exceptionally hard wood. 

 The hornbeams are the best proof of this statement; the strength, 

 hardness and flexibility of their wood rival steel. In durability 

 they excel the best oak. 



The name, ironwood, is locally given to any tree whose wood 

 is hard. 



I. Genus Ostrya, Scop. 



Hop Hornbeam, Ironwood {Osirya Virginiana, Willd.)— 

 Small, slender tree, with round head of stiff, wiry branches. 

 Bark greyish brown, furrowed into narrow, scaly ridges, which 

 break into small, oblong plates. M^ood reddish brown, heavy, 

 cross grained, tough, strong and hard to work. Buds lateral, 

 ovate, acute, small, brown. Leaves ovate, acuminate, sharply 

 and doubly serrate, 3 to 5 inches, thin, tough, dull yellow-green 

 above, paler beneath; yellow in autumn; petioles short, hairy. 

 Flowers with leaves, April and May, monoecious; staminate in 

 catkins formed previous season; pistillate erect, loose catkins, each 

 flower surrounded by three united bracts. Fruit a hop-like cluster 

 of inflated bags, formed of bracts, each containing a hard little 

 seed. Preferred habitat, s\\2idy iovQSi ground. Distribution, Nova 

 Scotia to Black Hills; south to Florida and Texas. Uses: Wood 

 used for mallets, levers and tool handles. Desirable for orna- 

 mental planting, but rarely used. 



The hop hornbeam looks like a relative of the birches. Its 

 leaves convey this impression, and slender limbs in winter bear 

 green catkins that cluster in threes on the ends of twigs and wait 

 for spring, just as the birch catkins do. 



The bark of this hornbeam is thin and scales off in narrow 

 strips whose surfaces are covered with squarish scales. The 

 pale colour and the stripping of the bark reminds us of the shell- 

 bark — its shaggy strips reduced to a small scale. Among the 

 branches the bark is smooth and close, and the twigs look like 

 fine wires, springing out at right angles from the stem. 



In spring the staminate catkins swing out, even as the birch 

 flowers do, but the pistillate clusters have to be looked for. 1 he 

 red, forked tongues thrust out for pollen may be seen at the 

 ends of leafy side shoots. Here the midsummer shows a hop- 



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