46 MANUAI, OF NATURB STXHiY. 



Reviews: — Characteristics of Plants. 



1. Oak. — Leaves alternate, simple, nett- 

 veined, with stipules deciduous. Flowers general- 

 ly in catkins. Fruit an acorn. Bark of red oak 

 with smooth stripes. Of white oak, scaly. Burr 

 oak, furrowed. Black oak, black bark. 



2. The Birch. — Flowers in bright, yellow cat- 

 kins. Leaves of black birch heart shaped and 

 doubly serrate. Oigray birch, triangular with a 

 long taper point, twice serrate. Of red birch, 

 ovate, acute at both ends and doubly serrate. 

 Arrangment alternate. The bark of black, or 

 cherry birch, with an agreeable smell. Of gray, 

 or white birch, scaling off in white strips and 

 layers. Of red birch, loose, shaggy and reddish 

 brown. 



3. Horse chestnut. — Leaves palmately com- 

 pound, and composed of seven leaflets all diverging 

 from the same point on the leaf-stalk, opposite. 

 Flowers are in panicles or racemes, and yellow and 

 reddish in color. Fach panicle is as large as a lilac 

 raceme. The fruit is a mahogany colored seed about 

 the size of a hickory nut, enclosed in a prickly burr, 



The buckeye is the American horse-chestnut and 

 has five leaflets instead of seven, and the fruit burr 

 is smooth instead of prickly. 



