174. WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
FAMILY III. THE HORNBEAM FAMILY. CARPINACE. 
This family is nearly allied to the oak family, from which it 
is distinguished by having its female flowers arranged in a loose 
termmal ament, which becomes an open, pendulous, compound 
fruit resembling a hop. The male flowers are on long, cylin- 
drical, tassel-like aments, formed of simple, imbricate scales, 
with twelve or more stamens attached to the base of the scales. 
It contains small trees, found in the temperate zone of both 
hemispheres, remarkable for the solidity, strength and tough- 
ness of their wood; with annual, alternate, simple, entire leaves. 
The buds are covered with imbricate scales, investing and sep- 
arating the plaited leaves. 
It comprehends two genera of trees found here: ‘The Horn- 
beam, with its naked nut concealed in the axil of a leaf-like 
bract ; and 
The Hop-Hornbeam, whose nut is covered by a hairy, in- 
flated, membranous sack. 
ill. 1. THE HORNBEAM. CARPINUS. L. 
Small trees, with a smooth, fluted or irregular trunk, and al- 
ternate, entire leaves. The female flowers are in loose aments, 
made of small, scale-like, changed leaves, in pairs. ‘T'hese, 
enlarged, contain the fruit, which is a small, ribbed, bony nut 
in the angle of a changed, halbert-shaped, or three-lobed leaf. 
There are about six species, one of which only is found in New 
England. 
Tur American Horneeam. C. Americana. Michaux. 
Figured in Michaux; Sylva, Plate 108. 
The hornbeam is a small tree, easily distinguished by its 
trunk, which is marked with longitudinal, irregular ridges, 
resembling those on the horns of animals of the deer kind. 
From its great resemblance to the European species, it received 
at once from the earliest settlers this good old English descrip- 
