AMENTACE^E. 749 



Scale3 of the catkin entire. Leaves on short or rather 



stiff stalks 8. Willow. 



Scales of the catkin jagged. Leaves on long stalks, very 



broad, shaking with wind 9. Poplar. 



Nuts 1-seeded. 



Nuts small, in compact catkins. 



Nuts slightly succulent, and resinous outside ... 1. Gale. 

 Nuts flat and quite dry. 



Scales of the catkins thin and deciduous. Nut3 



winged 3. Birch. 



Scales of the catkins hard, remaining after the nuts 



have fallen 2. Alder. 



Nuts solitary, or in clusters, or in loose spikes, wholly or 

 partially enclosed in an involucre. 

 Nuts small, in loose spikes, each in a 3-lobed, leafy in- 

 volucre 4. Hornbeam. 



Nuts solitary or clustered, each in an involucre, adher- 

 ing to it at the base, with leafy, jagged lobes ... 5. Hazel. 

 Nuts (acorns) projecting from a short, cup-shaped in- 

 volucre 7. Oak. 



Nuts completely enclosed in a prickly involucre ... 6. Beech. 



Among trees generally planted in Britain, belonging to exotic genera 

 of the Catkin family, or nearly allied to, it are the Spanish Chestnut 

 (CaManea), with the flowers nearly of an Oak, but the nuts com- 

 pletely enclosed in a prickly involucre, as in Beech ; two or three 

 species of Plane (Platanus), with both male and female catkins glo- 

 bular and pendulous, the flowers intermixed with bristly hairs, and 

 differing slightly from the family in their albuminous seeds ; the 

 Liquidambar, with globular catkins, but in the structure of its ovary 

 and fruit showing more affinity to some families allied to the Saxifrages ; 

 and two or three species of Walnut (Juglans), which in their pinnated 

 leaves and more perfect perianth show an approach to the Sumach 

 family ( Terebinthacece) . 



I. GALE. MYRICA. 



Shrubs, with resinous, dotted leaves. Flowers dioecious, in short, 

 sessile catkins ; the scales imbricated, without inner scales. Male 

 catkins with 4 or 8 stamens within each scale, the anthers nearly 

 sessile, and no perianth. Females with 2 ovaries under each scale ; 

 perianth adhering to the base of the ovary, with 2 lateral, projecting 

 lobes. Stigmas 2, linear. Fruit a small, resinous or nearly drupe- 

 like, globular nut, with 1 erect seed. 



A genus of several species, dispersed over the temperate regions of 

 the globe, or the mountainous parts of the tropics. Associated with 



