SUPPLEMENT. 
THE FAMILIES OF FLOWERING PLANTS. 
By Cuaries Louts Poruarp. 
CHAPTER XIV. 
Order Fagates. 
This order is of great importance from the standpoint of economic 
botany and forestry, containing, as it does, a large number of the most 
valuable timber trees of the world. It consists of two families, both 
characterized by the alternate simple leaves with pronounced venation; 
by the monoecious flowers, born’ in aments as in the willows; and by 
the fruit, which is a one-séeded nut. The flowers have a calyx, but no 
corolla, 
Family Betulaceae. Birch Family. Contains six genera and 
about 75 species, chiefly of northern distribution. They are distin- 
guished from the related family Fagaceae by the aments, which are 
mostly shorter and thicker, and by the absence of a cup-shaped invo- 
lucre (like that of an acorn) around the fruit. Betula, the birch, is 
undoubtedly the most important genus of this family. Birch wood is 
hard and durable, and being susceptible of a high polish, is frequently 
used in the manufacture of various articles of furniture and in house- 
building. The bark of the paper birch is well known for its property 
of peeling off in thin layers, and it is in demand for drawings and 
paintings. It seems to have reached the acme of utility however in 
the hands of the Indians, and is so strongly associated with Indian 
stories and legends that we can scarcely conceive of one of Cooper’s 
dusky heroes without the accompaniment of his birch bark canoe and 
his tepee. Figure 63 shows an Indian encampment on the shores of 
a Minnesota lake; the tepees and canoes are of birch, and there is a 
birch forest in the background. Betula includes about 35 species, 
some of which penetrate even to the Arctic circle. Corylus, the hazel, 
