BETULACEAE. 121 



elliptic, acutish, coarsely and doubly crenate-dentate, 5-30 cm. long; fertile 

 aments ellipsoid, 1-2 cm. long, on stout peduncles shorter than the aments; 

 winter buds acute, gummy. 



A very common tree, especially in wet ground. 



Alnus sinuata (Regel) Rydb. (A. sitchensis Sarg.) Small tree or shrub, 

 3-5 m. tall, erect or ascending; bark rather dark, except on old stems; twigs 

 chestnut brown; buds smooth, gummy; leaves ovate, acuminate, obtuse or 

 cuneate at the base, bright green, doubly dentate, glabrous above, nearly so 

 beneath, thin, very gummy when young, 5-8 cm. long; petioles slender, 1-2 cm. 

 long; fruiting aments 1-1.5 cm. long, on slender peduncles as long or longer. 



Abundant in the mountains but rare at low altitudes, occasional at sea level. 



Family 28. FAGACEAE. Beech Family. 



Monoecious trees with alternate simple pinnately-veined 



leaves, with early withering stipules; petals none; staminate 



flowers in aments, each of 4-20 stamens and a calyx; pistillate 



flowers solitary or several together, sessile, in an involucre which 



becomes a bur or cup, each flower composed of a calyx adherent 



to a 4-8-celled ovary; fruit a 1-seeded nut. 



Nuts enclosed in a spiny involucre. 150. Castanopsis, 121. 



Nuts (acorns) only partly enclosed in cups which are 



not spiny. 151. Quercus, 121. 



ISO. CASTANOPSIS. Chinquapin. 



Evergreen trees or shrubs with scaly bark and numerous bud- 

 scales; leaves coriaceous, entire or dentate, pinnately-veined; 

 flowers in threes in cymes or the pistillate solitary or in twos, 

 in slender erect aments from the axils of the leaves of the year; 

 styles 3, spreading, terminating in minute stigmas; ovary sessile, 

 3-celled, with 2 ovules in each cell; fruit maturing at the end of 

 the second season; involucre covered by spines, tubercles or 

 ridges, enclosing 1-3 ovoid or globose rarely obscurely angled 

 nuts. 



Castanopsis chrysophylla (Dougl.) A. DC. Chinquapin. Tree usually 

 10-20 m. high; bark in broad plates, reddish brown; leaves evergreen, lanceo- 

 late to elliptic, entire, usually acute, 2-10 cm. long, short-petioled, glabrous or 

 slightly scurfy above, densely scurfy beneath with golden yellow scales; aments 

 3-7 cm. long; fruiting involucre densely covered with branched spines and 

 splitting into 4 irregular divisions; nut solitary, 3-angled, edible. 



Skamania County, Washington, to California. 



151. QUERCUS. Oak. 

 Trees; flowers very small, green or yellow, appearing with the 

 leaves; pistillate flowers one in each involucre; involucre enlarging 

 in fruit into a hard cup around the base of the elongated 1-seeded 

 nut (acorn) , the 5 undeveloped ovules remaining at the base or 

 top of the perfect seed. 



