BIRCH FAMILY 



Flowers. — April, May, with the leaves. Moncecious, apetalous ; 

 the staminatc naked in long pendulous aments. These aments 

 appear in midsummer about one-half an incli long, still', tomentose, 

 with light red brown scales ; they develop from lateral buds and are 

 conspicuous during the winter. In the spring they become about 

 two inches long, loose and drooping. The staminate flower is com- 

 posed of from three to fourteen stamens crowded on a hairy torus, 

 adnata to the base of a broadly ovate concave scale, which is con- 

 tracted at the apex into a sharp point, ciliate at margin, longer than 

 the stamens. The pistillate flowers are borne in erect lax aments, 

 each flower enclosed in a hairy sac-like body formed by the union of 

 a bract and two bractlets. Ovary, two-celled ; style short, two- 

 lobed ; ovule solitary. 



Fruit. — Strobile, consisting of a number of fruiting sac-like in- 

 volucres, each inclosing a small flat nut. The fruit cluster is from 

 one to two inches long, borne on a hairy stem and resembles a hop. 



To find in the forest a hop-bearing tree is to the uniniti- 

 ated an experience, and the fruit of this Hornbeam so closely 

 resembles that of the common hop- vine that it has given the 



name to the tree. In- 

 ilecd, the tree seems 

 to have very little that. 

 it can really call its 

 own, for it resembles 

 the buxh in its leaf 

 and the beech in its 

 spray. One thing, 

 however, is individual, 

 it excels all the other 

 trees of the forest in 

 strength. When wood- 

 men need a lever they 

 seek at once for a Hop 

 Hornbeam, whence its 

 wild - wood name of 

 Leverwood. 



This is one of the 



solitary trees ; never 



found in masses, it stands here and there in the forest and 



chooses only cool, fertile, shaded situations. The wood 



318 



Pistillate and Staminate Aments of Hop Hornbeam, 

 O^trya virgiiiiaita. 



