AMENTACE^. 469 



Among trees generally planted in Britain, belonging to exotic genera of 

 the Catkin family, or nearly aUied to it, are the Spanish Chestnut (Castanea), 

 with the flowers nearly of an Oak, but the nuts completely enclosed in a 

 prickly involucre, as in Beech ; two or three species oi' Plane (Platanus), 

 with both male and female catkins globular and pendulous, the flowers inter- 

 mixed with bristly hairs, and diSering shghtly fi'om the family in tlieir 

 albuminous seeds ; the Liquidambar, with globular catkins, but in the struc- 

 ture of its ovary and fruit showing more affinity to some famUies allied to 

 the Saxifrages ; and two or three species of Walnut (Julians), which in 

 their pinnated leaves and more perfect perianth show an approach to the 

 Sumach family {TerehinthacecB). 



I. GALS. MYRICA. 



Shrubs, with resinous, dotted leaves. Flowers dioecious, in short, sessile 

 catkins ; the scales imbricated, without inner scales. Male catkins with 4 

 or 8 stamens under each scale, the anthers nearly sessile, and no perianth. 

 Females with 2 ovaries under each scale ; perianth adhering to the base of 

 the ovary, with 2 lateral, projecting lobes. Stigmas 2, Imear. Fruit a 

 small, resinous or nearly drupe-like, globular nut, with 1 erect seed. 



A genus of several species, dispersed over the temperate regions of the 

 globe, or the mountainous parts of the tropics. Associated with two or 

 three small North American or South African genera, it forms a distinct 

 tribe, approaching Sippophae in the 2-lobed female perianth and almost 

 drupe-like nut. 



1. Sweet Gale. Msrrica Gale, Linn. 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 562.) 



An erect shrub, of 2 or 3 feet, fragrant when rubbed. Leaves deciduous, 

 cuneate-oblong or lanceolate, shghtly toothed towards the top, and often, 

 rathei- downy underneath. Catkins sessile along the ends of the branches ; 

 the males scarcely 6 Unes long, with spreading, concave, shining scales ; the 

 females much shorter, the long styles protruding from the scales. FrirUiing 

 catkins somewhat lengthened ; the globular, resinous nuts scarcely above a 

 line in diameter. 



In bogs and wet moors in northern and Arctic Europe, Asia, and Ame- 

 rica. Abundant in Scotland, northern England, and Ireland, rarer in the 

 south and east of England. Fl. spring, before the leaves are out. 



II. AZiDER. ALNUS. 



Flowers monoecious, the males in cylindrical catkins, usually pendulous, 

 with broad, almost sessile scales. Stamens 12 under each scale, the anthers 

 on very short filaments, with a small scale under each, usually forming 3 

 distinct, nearly regular, 4-cleft perianths. Female catkins short, closely 

 imbricated ; the scales entire, with 2, rarely 3, smaller inner scales. Ovaries 

 2 under each scale, 2-celled, with a pendulous ovule in each ceU. Styles 2. 

 Fruiting catkin ovoid, the scales (formed of the catkin-scale, with the 2 

 inner ones combined) hard, almost woody, remaining after the nuts have 

 fallen. Nuts small and seed-hke, without wings. 



A small genus, confined to the northern hemisphere, closely connected 

 with the Birches through some intermediate exotic species. 



2s 



