Tit. 2. THE HOP HORNBEAM. 177 
lil, 2. THER HOP HORNBEAM. OST'RYA. L. 
‘To this genus belong low trees or shrubs of the temperate 
zones in both hemispheres. ‘The sterile flowers are in cylindri- 
cal, pendent aments ; the fertile, in short, slender aments, which, 
when mature, have a striking resemblance to a hop, and are 
made up of inflated sacks containing a brown nut. There are 
few species, of which one is a native of the south of Europe, 
and one only, of this country. 
Tue American Hop Hornszam. O. Virginica. Willdenow. 
Figured in Michaux ; Sylva, Plate 109; in Abbott’s Insects, I, Plate 76; and 
poorly in Audubon’s Birds, Plate 40. 
The hop hornbeam is a handsome, small, slender tree, easily 
distinguished when in fruit by the resemblance of its spike of 
seed-vessels toa hop. The leaves are similar to those of the 
black birch and of the hornbeam, from the former of which 
they may be distinguished by the absence of the chequer-berry 
taste, and from the latter, by being more elliptical. The twigs 
are distinguished from both by their extreme toughness. The 
bark on the trunk is dark grayish, and is remarkable for being 
divided into very fine portions, three or four inches long, easily 
scaling off, narrower than the divisions on any other rough- 
barked tree, and continuing to become finer and narrower as 
the trec grows older. 
The branches are rather small, long and slender, and make 
a large angle with the stem, forming an open head. ‘The bark 
on the younger ones is smooth, and of a reddish copper or 
bronze or dark purplish brown color, like the cherry tree, dotted 
with white or gray. These dots lengthen horizontally, as on 
the bark of the birch, and the smoothness and deep color con- 
tinue till the branch or stem is two or three inches thick, when 
the bark begins to crack and become grayish. 
The recent shoots are very slender, of a reddish green dotted 
with brown; the older shoots are small and tapering, giving, 
with the leaves expanding in the same plane, great softness of 
appearance to one of the toughest trunks of the woods. 
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