DICOTYLEDONOUS PLANTS 55 



ments short. Pistillate catkins erect ; flowers 2-3 in the axil 

 of each bract, perianth replaced by 2-4 minute bractlets which 

 are adherent to the bract ; ovary 2-celled, styles 2. Fruit a 

 \Tinged or angled nut ; bracts of the pistillate flowers some- 

 what fleshy, persistent, becoming woody in fruit.* 



1. A. serrulata, Willd. Smooth Alder. A shrub or small tree 

 with smooth bark. Leaves obovate, rounded or obtuse at the apex,, 

 acute at the base, sharply and minutely serrate-, smooth above, downy 

 beneath, petioled, stipules oval, deciduous. Staminate catkins 2-4 

 in. long ; fruiting catkins ovoid, short-peduncled. Fruit ovate, wing- 

 less. Banks of streams and borders of marshes, ranging far S. 

 Leaves often persistent during the winter.* 



2. A. incana, Willd. Speckled Alder. A shrub 8-20 ft. high. 

 Leaves broadly oval or ovate, rounded at the base, sharply (some- 

 times doubly) serrate, white and usually downy beneath. Fruit 

 round. Forming thickets by streams, very common KT. - 



18. FAGACE.ffi;. Beech Family. 



Trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate, simple, pinnately 

 veined; stipules deciduous. Mowers monoecious, the stami- 

 nate in heads, or in drooping, spreading, or erect catkins, 

 calyx minute, petals none, stamens 4-20. Pistillate flowers 

 solitary or in small clusters, each flower subtended by more 

 or less united bracts which at maturity form a cup or bur, 

 calyx minutely toothed, ' petals none ; ovary 2-7-celled, but 

 becoming 1-celled. Fruit a 1-seeded nut.* 



I. FA6US, Toum. 



Trees with smooth, close, ash-gray bark, and slender, often 

 horizontal branches. Staminate flowers in long, slender- 

 peduncled, roundish clusters, calyx bell-shaped, 4-6-cleft, 

 stamens 8-12, anthers 2-celled; pistillate flowers solitary or 

 more often in pairs, peduncled, surrounded by a 4-lobed in- 

 .volucre and numerous linear bracts ; ovaries 3-celled with 2 

 ovules in each cell, but usually only 1 ovule matures in ea^h 

 ovary ; styles 3, thread-shaped, fruit a thin-shelled, 3-angled 

 nut.* 



