178 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
in conelike catkins with entire or 3-lobed catkin-scales covering 2 or 
3 flowers which have no evident perianth, but are either naked or 
with 2 floral scales: ovary sessile, 2-celled, with 2 suspended ovules 
and 2 filiform stigmas, or styles which are stigmatiferous throughout. 
Fruit a small dry indehiscent 1-celled and 1-seeded nut, or more rarely 
a 2-celled and 2-seeded nut, with or without a membranous wing or a 
sponey border. 
pong 
GENUS VI—ALNUS. Tournef. 
Male flowers in cylindrical catkins with peltate catkin-scales, to the 
margins of which minute floral-scales are adnate, each catkin-scale 
covering 3 flowers; floral-scales combined into a 4-partite perianth (?) 
round each flower: stamens 4, with short distinct filaments; anthers 
9-celled. Female catkins ovoid or ovoid-cylindrical, with fleshy 
broadly-ovate catkin-scales, each covering 2 flowers; floral-scales 2 to 
each flower, adnate to the catkin-scale at the base, and not combined 
into an evident perianth: ovary sessile, 2-celled, with 1 ovule in each 
cell; styles 2, elongate, filiform, stigmatiferous throughout. Fruit 
catkins with large persistent woody catkin-scales, each catkin-scale 
with the 4 axillary floral-scales united with it and much increased in 
size. Fruita minute nut, commonly 1-celled and 1-seeded by abortion 
of the second cell, compressed, angular, with or without a marginal 
wing. Cotyledons filling the cavity of the seed, flattish, roundish- 
cordate. ' 
Trees or shrubs with roundish or oval serrate or lobed deciduous 
leaves. Catkins arranged in short racemes. Male catkins produced 
in autumn, and remaining naked during winter; female catkins ap- 
pearing with or shortly after the leaves. 
The derivation of the name of this genus of plants is said to be from the Celtic 
words, al, near, and dan, the edge of a river, in reference to its habitat; or from the 
Hebrew alon, anoak. Dr. Mayne gives it as from Alatus amne, it grows or is nourished 
by a river or stream. 
SPECIES L-ALNUS GLUTINOSA. Garin. 
Pratre MCCXCIV. 
Reich. Ic. Fl. Germ. et Helv. Vol. XII. Tab. DCX XXI. Fig. 1295. 
Billot, Fl. Gall. et Germ. Exsice. No. 447. 
Betula Alnus, Linn. Sm. Engl. Bot. No. 1508. 
Leaves suborbicular or roundish-obovate, usually wedgeshaped at. 
the base, retuse or emarginate, faintly lobed or repand and irregularly 
serrate-denticulate, glutinous when young, hairy on the nerves and in 
