22 FAMILIAR TREES 



a lateral flower, which also is flanked by two 

 secondary bracteoles. In the Hornbeam the female 

 catkin bears a number of bracts, narrower and 

 more pointed than those of the male flowers, and 

 in the axils of each of them are the two lateral 

 florets of the typical catkin above described, with 

 the two bracteoles, and four secondary bracteoles, 

 but no central floret. It is these bracteoles which 

 form the conspicuous three-lobed " cupules " when 

 the fruit is ripe. 



The catkins naturally remain on the tree until 

 the fruit is ripe — that is, until October. They are 

 then sometimes as much as four inches in length, 

 the pale, buff-green, three-lobed, leaf-like cupules 

 being each an inch or more in length from its 

 point to its base. The fruits occur in pairs at the 

 "base of these scales, and are small, olive-green, 

 roughly three-sided nuts, resembling small Spanish 

 chestnuts, or Beech-masts, about a quarter of an 

 inch long, crowned by the remains of the perianth, 

 and each containing a single seed. The effect of 

 the pale green fruit-clusters among the somewhat 

 sombre foliage that in summer hides mucfi of the 

 silvery bark, is distinctly pleasing. 



Gerard, in 1597, gives, in his " Herball," a very 

 accurate figure of the Hornbeam in fruit, and a 

 description of 'the tree and its name, at once so 

 correct and so characteristic that it may well be 

 quoted at some length : — 



'■ Setidus, or the Hornebeam tree, grows great, and very 

 like vnto the Elme, or Wioh Hasel tree, hauing a great body, 

 the wood or timber whereof is better for arrowes and shaftes, 



