510 FLORA OF TEXAS. 



6-1 2 -flowered; involucre unequally 3-lobed, the middle 

 lobe longer and serrate on one side; nut small, ovate, com- 

 pressed, 8-ribbed. Eicli woods. March. — A small treCj 

 with hard and close-grained wood. 



OSTKYA, Micheli. Hop Hornbeam. 



Sterile floivers in drooping cylindrical aments, each in 

 the axil of a scale-like bract, destitute of a calyx; stamens 

 with the filaments irregularly united; fertile flowers in a 

 short terminal crowded spike, each inclosed in a mem- 

 branaceous involucre; ovary 2-celled, 2-ovuled, bearded 

 at the apex; stigmas 2, filiform ; fruiting involucre in- 

 flated, nerved, hairy or bristly at the base, inclosing the 

 solitary pointed nut. — Small trees, with ovate or oblong 

 serrate short-petioled deciduous leaves ; flowers appearing 

 with the leaves. 



0. Virgintca, Willd. {Hop ffornheam.) Leaves ovate- 

 oblong, shai-ply and simply serrate, acuminate, rounded 

 or slightly cordate at the base, pubescent; fertile spike 

 cone-like, short-ped uncled ; the imbricated involucres ob- 

 long, mucronate, bristly at the base. Eich woods. March. 

 — A small tree, with hard and close-grained wood. 



121. WAX-MYETLE FAMILY. Order, Myricace^. 



Chiefly shrubs, with simple alternate leaves, with or 

 without stipules, and monoecious or dioecious /ower^, dis- 

 posed in aments, destitute of calyx or corolla, each in the 

 axil of a simple bract ; stamens 2-10 ; the short filaments 

 free or partly united; anthers 2-celled; ovary solitary, 

 1-celled, surrounded at the base with a row of scales; 

 ovule solitary, orthotropous or amphitropous ; involucre 

 none ; stigmas 1-2, elongated ; fruit a dry 1-seeded drupe ; 

 albume7i none ; cotyledons fleshy ; radicle superior. 



