THE HORNBEAM— continued. 
stem and some of the other irregularities in its outline is, in part at least, the result 
of its internal structure, the dense white wood being traversed by very wide rays and 
the annual rings between them taking a very irregular wavy direction. This, accom- 
panied with the slow growth of a shade tree, makes its wood not only hard but also 
singularly tough, to which property it owes its name of Hornbeam (from the German 
baurn , a tree) and its employment for cog-wheels, printers’ rollers, and similar uses. 
The thin grey bark shading to black, the buds and the leaves have some 
resemblances to those of the Beech ; but the Hornbeam buds are not as long as those 
of the Beech nor do they make the same angle with the stem. The leaves are of a 
hazel-green or slightly yellowish colour, have a tapering point, a serrate margin, and 
strongly-marked plaits along their pinnate lateral veins. As they unfold in April 
their stipular bud-scales are shed ; but, when the tree has been pollarded or clipped, 
the leaves themselves wither but do not fall in autumn. This makes the Hornbeam 
valuable as a wind-screen for hedges in nursery gardens, a use to which its modern 
German name, Hainbuche , refers. 
The catkins appear soon after the unfolding of the leaf-buds ; the shorter 
carpellate ones terminating the shoots ; whilst the staminate ones, which have more 
prominent leafy catkin-scales than those of Hazel, hang from the axils of the leaves 
of the previous year. In the axil of each catkin-scale are from four to twelve 
deeply-forked stamens, each bearing two half-anthers surmounted by a tuft of hair. 
As no bracteoles are present it is doubtful how many flowers these stamens represent. 
The female catkin elongates considerably soon after pollination, and in the axil of 
each of its narrow green scales there are two lateral flowers and six bracteoles. 
The catkin-scales soon fall, but the bracteoles fused into two trilobed scales 
become large and green, performing at first the functions of leaves, and constituting 
as they hang in hop-like clusters one of the most marked features of the tree. 
In front of each is the two-chambered ovary, surmounted at first by two long red 
stigmas and by the five more persistent points of the adherent perianth. These 
last are clearly visible when the little three-sided and one-seeded nut has ripened 
and the brown and withered scales are ready to fall in October or November. 
The etymology of the name Carpinus is doubtful. It has been traced to the 
Latin carpentum , a chariot, which seems borne out by the Swedish karm and the 
French charme ; but it has also been suggested that its source is the Celtic car , wood, 
and pin, a head, an equivalent for the Greek (v-yla, zugia , from the use of the 
tough wood in making yokes for oxen. The word itself is used by Pliny. 
