124 Fagaceae 
ALNUS ALDER 
Shrubs or trees; buds with 2 scales. Leaves dentate or serrate, sometimes also 
slightly lobed. Flowers monoicous, in aments; aments already starting during the pre- 
vious season. Staminate aments fascicled, long-cylindric: flowers 3 or 6 on each scalet 
perianth mostly 4-parted: stamens 4; filaments short, not forked. Pistillate aments oval 
or elliptical, hardly pendulous, in racemes; scales woody at maturity, persistent, entire or 
erose or 5-toothed; flowers 2—4 on each scale: perianth none: ovary sessile, 2-celled; 
styles 2. Fruit small, wingless or winged, flat. (The Latin name.) 
A. Leaves doubly dentate or serrate, or more or less lobed and serrate; stamens 4. 
B. Teeth of leaves almost equilateral triangles; tip of tooth almost a right angle,. 
often with a gland; leaves rusty-pubescent beneath at least on the veins; mature pis- 
tillate ament or cone 12—25 mm. long. W. C. 
A. oregona Nutt. (Red Alder) 
BB. Teeth of leaves rather narrow; tip of tooth acuminate or narrowly acute, with- 
out gland; mature pistillate ament or cone 8—I 5 mm. long. 
C. Winter buds 12-13 mm. long, acuminate; leaves somewhat brown-hairy along 
the veins beneath; stipules oblong to spatulate, 6—7 mm. long; pistillate aments 
enclosed during the winter; flowers opening late, with or after the leaves. W. 
C. E. (A. sitchensis.) 
A. sinuate. Rydb. (Late Alder) 
CC. Winter buds 6—9 mm. long, obtuse; leaves without brown hairs; stipules 
ovate, 12-13 mm. long; pistillate aments naked during the winter; flowers 
opening early, before the leaves. C. E. 
A. tenuifolia Nutt. (Mountain Alder) 
AA. Leaves simply serrulate, not at all lobed; stamens 1—3; mature pistillate ament 
or cone 8—13 mm. long. E. (A. serrulata for our region.) 
A. rhombifolia Nutt. (White Alder) 
FAGACEAE Beech Family 
Shrubs or trees. Leaves alternate, petioled, simple, pinnately veined, entire to lobed 
or cleft; stipules deciduous or none. Flowers monoicous, small. Staminate flowers 
in aments or heads: perianth 4—7-lobed: stamens 4— 20; filaments slender, distinct, sim- 
ple. Pistillate flowers solitary or in clusters, each cluster of | or more subtended by an 
involucre of wholly or partly united bracts which become a cup or bur: perianth 4—8- 
lobed, urn-shaped or oblong, adnate to the ovary: ovary 3—7-celled; ovules 1—2 in 
each cell; styles as many as the ovary cells, terminally or longitudinally stigmatic. Fruit 
t—3 nuts. Seed |. 
A. Leaves serrate or dentate or entire, not lobed; filaments many times as long as the 
anthers; pistillate flowers on the bases of the staminate aments. 
B. Leaves entire, coated beneath with yellow persistent scales; involucre enclosing 
13 nuts, very prickly with branched prickles. CasTANOoPsIs (p. 125) 
BB. Leaves entire or serrate or dentate, without scales beneath; nuts solitary; in- 
volucre covering only the base of the nut, not prickly or at least the prickles not 
branched. PasaniA (p. 125) 
AA. Leaves often deeply lobed but in some serrate or entire; filaments not longer than 
the anthers: pistillate flowers not on the staminate aments; fruit a single nut (acorn), 
partly enclosed in a scaly cup which is not prickly. QUERCUS (p. 125) 

