MYRICACEAE (SWEET GALE FAMILY) 329 



* Petioles terete or channeled, hut little if at all laterally flattened. 

 •»- Young leaves and petioles white-tomentose ; capsule slender-pediceled. 

 4. P. heterophylla L. (Downv P.) Tree 10-25 in. high ; leaves ovate with 

 a somewhat truncate or cordate base, obtuse, crenate, at le]i«;th nearly sniooth 

 except on the elevated veins beneath ; fertile catkins t'ew-tiowered ; stamens 

 12-GO; capsules 1-1.3 cm. long, equaling the pedicels. — Borders' of river 

 swamps, Ct. to Ga. ; also from O. to Ark. and La. 



•«- •*- Young leaves and petioles not white-tomentose ; capsule stout-pediceled. 

 6. P. balsamifera L. (Balsam P., Tacamahac.) Tree 0-80 m. liinh, the 

 large buds varnished with a copious fragrant resin ; leaves ovate-lanceolate 

 to cordate-ovate, gradually tapering and pointed, finely crenate, smooth on b(jth 

 sides, silvery and reticulately veined beneath ; scales dilated, slightly hairy • 

 stamens 20-;>0 ; capsule ovoid, 2-valved. — Borders of rivers and swamps, Lab.* 

 to Alaska, s. to n. and w. N. E., Mich., Minn., etc. 



6. P. CAXDICANS Ait. (Balm OF GiLEAD.) Leaves broader and more or less 

 heart-shaped, petiole and lower surface hairy. (P. balsamifera, var. Gray.) 

 — Common in cultivation and freely escaping; perhaps of Asiatic origin. 

 (Introd.) 



* * Petioles laterally flattened. 



7. P. deltoides Marsh. (Cotton-\vood, Necklace P.) Tree 15-30 m. high; 

 leaves broadly deltoid, with numerous crenate serratures and narrow very acute 

 acuinination, sometimes ovate, rarely cordate, on elongated petioles ; scales 

 iacerate-f ringed, not hairy ; stamens 60 or more; capsules on slender i)edicels, 

 6-10 mm. long, in long catkins, ellipsoid-ovoid, o-i-valved. (P. moniUfera 

 Ait.) — Borders of streams, w. Que. and N. H. to Fla., w. to the Rocky Mts. 



P. NIGRA L., the Black P. of Ku., a pyramidal tree somewhat resembling the 

 preceding but with the less lustrous rhombic-deltoid smaller leaves broader 

 than long, more finely crenate, and its var. italica Du Koi, the Lombahdv P., 

 with strictly ascending branches, are spreading from cultivation. (Introd. 

 fiom Eu.) 



MYRICACEAE (Sweet Gale Family) 



Monoecious or dioecious shrubs, with each Jcind of flowers in short scaly cat- 

 kins, and resinous-dotted often fragrant leaves, — differing from the Birches 

 chiefly in the I-celled ovary with a single erect orthotropus ovule, and the drupe- 

 like nut. Involucre and perianth none, 



1. MYRICA L. 



The only genus. — Flowers solitary under a scale-like bract and with a paij 

 of bractlets, the sterile in ellipsoid or cylindrical, the fertile in ovoid or globulai 

 catkins, from axillary scaly buds ; stamens 2-8 ; filaments somewhat united 

 below ; anthers 2-celled. Fruit small, globular or shorr-cylindric, dry, coated 

 with resinous grains or wax. (Mi/pixr?, the ancient name of the Tamarisk or 

 some other shrub ; pei'haps from /j.vpi^eii', to perfume.) 



^Mostly dioecious; fertile catkins ovoid; ovary with 2-4 scales at base; nut 

 globular , leaves entire or somewhat serrate. 



1. M. Gllle L. (Sweet Gale.) Shrub 1-1.5 m. l)igh ; leaves wedge-Ian- 

 ceolate, serrate toward the apex, pale, later than the flowers; sterile catkins 

 closely clustered; nuts imbricated in heads, 2-winged by the two thick ovale 

 scales which coalesce with its base. — Borders of ponds, and in swamps, Lab. to 

 •N. E., along the Great Lakes to Minn., and north west w. ; .s. in the mts. to Va. 

 April, May. (Eurasia.) 



2. M. cerifera L. (Wax Myrtle.) Leaves (Wi.C} cm. broad) lanceolate, 

 narrowed at the base, entire or shakily toothed toward the acute apex, shining 

 and resinous-dotted both sides, somewhat preceding the flowers, fragrant, sterile 



