SVTEET-GALE FA3JILY. 



3-23 



Ghs A tree of Tcry slow growth, and does not attain to a verr great 

 size. It is readily distingaished. by its peculiarly rigid trunk. The rich 

 colors of its leaves in the fall add much to the variety and beauty of the 

 autumnal scenery. The wood is exceedingly hard and close-grained, 

 and is well suited for turned work, and for such purposes as require 

 great compactness and solidity. 



6. OS TRYA, MicM. Ho? Hoenbeaat. 



[Greek, Osirean, a shell, or scale, — ^in allusion to the structure of*the fruit.] 



Stamtstate Fl. nearly as in Carpinus. Pistillate Fl. in terminal, 

 loosely imbricated aments with small deciduous Irads. S-^ahs of -the 

 involucre in pairs, hairy at base, .membranaceous, uniting by their mar- 

 gins and enclosing 1-2 flowers. Ocary 2-celled ; S-or^'tV./, crowned 

 with the entire and ciliate border of the calyx ; stigmas 2, subsessile. 

 elongated, filiform. Fruit in a strobile (or cone), formed of the scales of 

 the involucre, which are membranaceous, nerved, and coalesced into 

 utricles or little sacs. Xuts solitary within the utricles, compressed, 

 ovate-lanceolate, smooth, 1-seeded. Slender trees, with brownish, slightly 

 furrowed larl\ and Jioicers ajDpearing with the leaves. 



1. 0. Virgin ica, Willd. Leaves ovate-oblong, acuminate, sharply ser- 

 rate ; cones ovoid-oblong ; involucres thickly beset with tawny bristles 

 at the base. 



TniGESTA2\ OsTRTA. Hop Horn-beam. Iron TTood. Lever-wood. 



Stitn 20-40 or 50 feet high, and 5-S or 10 inches in diameter. Leaves 2-4 inches long 

 on short petioles. Staminate aments an inch to an inch and a half long. Pistillai'a 

 amenis mostly terminal and solitarr, 1 to near 2 inches long, slender. and,VhiIe young, 

 linear; f.oicers in pairs. — each pair subtended by an ovate-lanceolate tawny caducous 

 tract ; each flower contained in a membranaceous sac formed by the united scales of the 

 inrolucre, — the sac enlarging and becoming a bladder-like envelope of the nut, slightly 

 inflated, ovate, imbricated^ and forming. altogether, at maturity, a pedunculate pendulous 

 co7ie, about the size of and much resembling.'the Common Sop. 



Woodlands; New England to Carolina. ^Fl. April -May. Fr. Sept 



Ohs. The wood of this small tree is remarkably firm and tough ; and 

 although neither very common nor very important, it may be well, per- 

 haps, for the intelligent farmer to know what it is when he meets with 

 it. According to Mr. EiiEKSOX, it is known by the name of Lever-wood 

 in Xew England. 



Oeder LXYIII. MYRICAX'E^. (Sweet-Gale Family.) 



Shrubs with alternate, simple, resinous-dotted often aromatic, mostly sttpulate leaves and 

 monoecious or dicecioiis jfoicers in small ainents. — the pistillate globose or ovoid; ovar'y 

 1-celledwith a single erect otule surrounded by persistent scales; fruit a dry«2;^or 

 Bometimes drupe-like and covered with a waxy secretion ; embryo without albumen. 



1. AnrPiI CA, L. Bayeeery. 



[The ancient name of some shrub.] 



Flowers dicecious Stamlnate Fl. in oblong or cylindrical aments. 



