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366 BRITISH FLOWERING PLANTS 



Myrica 



Shrubs. Generally dioecious. The catkins hang 

 down, thus protecting the pollen from wet. 



M. Gale (Sweet Gale or Bog Myrtle). — The flowers 

 are sometimes complete, but the stamens and pistils are 

 generally on separate plants. Each male flower has 

 4 stamens. The pollen is pulverulent, and when it 

 falls is held by the scales of the catkins until it is 

 shaken by the wind. The leaves are glabrous or slightly 

 hairy. 



Alistos (Alder) 



Generally monoecious, but sometimes also with com- 

 plete flowers. Pollen wind-borne. 



A. glutinosa. — The male catkins are cylindrical ; the 

 female, ovoid. ' According to Kirchner the plants are 

 protandrous, according to Kerner protogynous, while 

 Macleod, in Belgium, found the male and female flowers 

 appearing simultaneously. The petioles and under sides 

 of the leaves are hairy. The young leaves are also 

 protected by being sticky, whence the name. 



Fagus (Beech) 



Monoecious protogynous wind flowers in globular 

 catkins ; the male pendulous, with 8-12 stamens, the 

 female almost sessile. Nuts generally 2, enclosed in a 

 hard prickly involucre, composed of the combined inner 

 and outer bract-scales of the catkin. When they are 

 ripe the involucre opens. The nuts are larger than those 

 of the Hornbeam, and are intended to be carried by 

 squirrels and other animals. Hence they differ from 

 the fruit of the Hornbeam, which the Beech so much 

 resembles — first, in the absence of a wing, which would 

 be useless ; secondly, in having a less hard coat ; and 

 thirdly, in being larger. 



The bud of the Beech is very complex.^ It is elon- 

 gated, spindle-shaped, in winter half to three-quarters of 



' Avebury (Lubbock), Biids and Stipules. 



