The Flora of the Cayuga Lake Basin 177 



b. Leaves oval or elliptical, mostly rounded at base, serrate or dentate with the 



teeth serrulate, green or glaucous beneath ; axis of the general inflorescence 



nodding, the individual pistillate clusters also nodding; bark more bronzy and 



lustrous, much more lenticellate. 2. A. incana 



a. Leaves and maturing fertile cones strongly glutinous ; leaves dentate with the 



teeth denticulate, green beneath; small trees. 3. A. vulgaris 



1. A. rugosa (Ehrh.) Spreng. (A. serrulata of Cayuga Fl.) Smooth Alder. 



Shores and other wet places ; scarce. Mar. 20-Apr. 20. 



Only in the vicinity of Cayuta and Cayuga Lakes : w. shore of Cayuta Lake ; 

 lowlands along the shore at head of Cayuga Lake (D. !) ; Crowbar Point (D.) ; 

 Taughannock Point; s. of Ludlowville station (D.\) ; Cayuga Marshes (£>.!); Fox 

 Ridge station. 



Me. to Minn., southw. to Fla. and Tex. A plant primarily of the southeastern 

 U. S., in its northern range restricted largely to the Coastal Plain and the basin of 

 the Great Lakes and occurring only occasionally elsewhere. 



This specific name is sometimes credited to Du Roi, but his was scarcely a valid 

 publication. 



2. A. incana (L.) Moench. Speckled Alder. 



Swamps ; common. Mar. 20-Apr. 20. 



Newf. to Sask., southw. to Pa., Iowa, and Nebr. ; rare or absent on the Coastal 

 Plain. 



This species is very variable in the pubescence and glaucous character of the lower 

 leaf-surface. Forms in which the latter is glaucous and glabrate or glabrous, except 

 on the veins, are distinguished as var. glauca Ait. ; those in which the lower leaf- 

 surface is green and glabrate, as var. hypochlora Call. (See Rhodora 23: 257. 1921.) 



3. A. vulgaris Hill. Black Alder. European Alder. 



In cultivation, and spreading from the roots, as on C. U. campus and on the crest 

 of Big Gully. 



Introduced from Eu. 



34. FAGACEAE (Beech Family) 



a. Staminate flowers in a head on a drooping peduncle; nuts sharply triangular. 



1. Fagus 



a. Staminate flowers in slender aments ; nuts terete or flattened on one or two sides. 



b. Pistillate flowers 2-\ ; fruit inclosed in a dehiscent prickly bur ; staminate catkins 



dense, stiff, erect, 15-30 cm. long. 2. Castanea 



b. Pistillate flowers solitary; fruit partly inclosed at base in a cup-shaped scaly 



involucre; staminate catkins distantly flowered, flexuous, drooping, 4-14 cm. 



long. 3. Quercus 



1. Fagus (Tourn.) L. 



1. F. grandifolia Ehrh. (F. ferruginea of Cayuga Fl.) Beech. 



Rich gravelly, calcareous or neutral, rarely acid, soils; common. May 10-June 1. 



Abundant in the McLean region and locally on the hills e. and s. e. of Ithaca, and 

 also locally abundant in some of the ravines, as in Six Mile Creek; elsewhere not a 

 dominant forest tree. 



N. B. to Ont. and Wis., southw. to Fla. and Tex.; less frequent on the Coastal 

 Plain. 



This species, with Acer saccharum, usually contrasts strongly in distribution with 

 chestnut and oak, apparently preferring a fundamentally different soil. 



