w 



! 



52 



TREES GROWING NEAR WATER. 



and lavishness which it sometimes pleases Nature to display. 

 They are then picked up by the wind or carried along with the 

 stream until they find some fitting niche to rest in, and to grow. 

 The quaint little cones are often seen in the autumn hanging 

 on the branches together with the young catkins. Although 

 usually a shrub, the speckled alder sometimes becomes a small 

 tree. 



A. rugbsa, smooth alder, [Plate XV.) is also a shrub or small 

 tree which ranges in height from five to twenty-five or forty feet 

 high. That its obovate leaves are green and rather smooth 

 on both sides will serve as a means to distinguish it from Alnus 

 incana. Its young twigs are also slightly pubescent. Its fa- 

 vorite home is along the borders of streams where it forms 

 close thickets. It is found also on moist hillsides. 



AflERICAN HORNBEAH. WATER BEECH. BLUE 



BEECH. I RON WOOD. {Plate XVI.) 



Carptniis Caroliniana. 



FAMILY SHAPE HEIGHT RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Birch. Head open; 10-40 yVv/, New Brunstvick to Aprii, May. 



branches spreading, higher southward. Mhtnesota^ south- Fruit; Aug., Sept. 



wa rd to Florida 

 and Texas. 



Trunk T^nd branches : ridged. Bark: smooth; greyish black, and irregularly 

 and vertically lined with stripes of dull grey. Byancldcts : slender ; when 

 young, brownish purple, terminating in green-bronze ; those that are older, with 

 an ashy hue. Leaves: simple; alternate; with short, slender petioles; 

 ovate-lanceolate, or oblong, with pointed apex and rounded or slightly cordate 

 base; sharply and unevenly serrate ; ribs straight ; pubescent; especially so in 

 their angles; above smooth. Fruit : growing in a green, elongated, drooping 

 cluster. The small nuts growing singly at the base of two opposite, halberd- 

 shaped, three-lobed bracts. 



This enchanting little tree or shrub is sometimes found grow- 

 ing in a one-sided fashion which allows its branches to droop 

 over a stream. As they do so the flower or fruit clusters hang 

 at right angles to the boughs ; so they are thrown into prom- 

 inence and give a light effect to the foliage. The bracts of the 

 clusters are much more strongly tinted with yellow than are the 

 dark green leaves. A young spray of the tree is very beauti- 



I 



