SWEET-GALE FAMILY. 



823 



Obs. A tree of very slow growth, and does not attain to a very great 

 size. It is readily distinguished by its peculiarly ridged 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, Michel Hop HornbeaxM. 



[Greek, Ostreon, a shell, or scale, — in allusion to tlie structure of the fruit.] 



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

 loosely imbricated aments with small deciduous bracts. S:ales of the in- 

 volucre in pairs, hairy at base, membranaceous, uniting by their margins 

 and enclosing 1-2 flowers. Ovary 2-celled ; 2-ovuled, crowned with 

 the entire and ciliate border of the calyx; stigmas 2, subsessile, elongat- 

 ed, 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. Nuts solitary within the utricles, compressed, ovate-lan- 

 ceolate, smooth, 1-seeded. Slender trees, with brownish, slightly fur- 

 rowed bark, and flowers appearing with the leaves. 



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

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

 at the base. 



YiRGiNiAX Ostrya. Hop Hom-bcam. Iron Wood. Lever-wood. 



stem 20-40 or 50 feet high, and 5 - 8 or 10 inches in diameter. Leaves 2-4 inches long 

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

 mostly terminal and solitary, 1 to near 2 inches long, slender and, while young, linear ; 

 flowers in pairs, — each pair subtended bj' an ovate-lanceolate tawny caducous bract ; each 

 flower contained in a membranaceous sac formed by the united scales of the involucre, — 

 the sac enlarging and becoming a bladder-like envelope of the nut, slightly inflated, ovate, 

 imbricated, and forming altogether, at maturity, a pedunculate pendulous cone, about the 

 size of, and much resembling, the Common Hop. 



Woodlands : Xew England to Carolina. Fr. April - ■^lay. Fr. Sept. 



Obs. 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. Emerson, it is known by the name of Lever-wood 

 in Xew England. 



Order LXYIEI. MYRICA'CE^. (Sweet-gale Family.) 



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

 monoecious or dioecious flowers in small aments, — the pistillate globose or ovoid ; omry 

 1-celled with a single erect ovule, surrounded by persistent scales ; fruit a dry nut or some- 

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



1. MYRI'OA, L. Bayberry. 



[The ancient name of some shrub.] 



Flowers dioecious. Stajiinate Fl. in oblong or cylindrical aments. 



