Other forms of _C. ovalis_ are var. _hirsuta_ Sarg. (_Hicoria glabra

hirsuta_ Ashe) with obovoid compressed fruit narrowed into a stipitate

base, with a husk 1/12′—⅛′ in thickness, scaly bark, pubescent

winter-buds, leaves with pubescent petioles and leaflets pubescent on

the lower surface; a common tree on the mountains of North Carolina up

to altitudes of 2000° above the sea; and var. _borealis_ Sarg. (_Hicoria

borealis_ Ashe) with pubescent branchlets and winter-buds, leaves

pubescent early in the season, ellipsoidal or ovoid flattened fruit with

a husk ⅛′—⅕′ in thickness, an ovoid nut ridged to the base, and scaly

bark; only in southeastern Michigan.

14. Carya floridana Sarg.

[Illustration: Fig. 187]

Leaves 6′—8′ long, with slender petioles rusty pubescent when they first

appear, soon glabrous, with 5 or rarely 7 lanceolate to oblanceolate

leaflets long-pointed and acuminate at apex, unsymmetrical and rounded

or cuneate at base, serrate with remote cartilaginous teeth, sessile or

the terminal leaflet short-stalked, covered when they unfold with rufous

pubescence, soon glabrous, at maturity thin, conspicuously

reticulate-venulose, yellow-green above, often brownish below, the upper

three 3½′—4′ long, 1′—2′ wide, and about twice larger than those of the

lowest pair. Flowers: staminate in long-stalked scurfy pubescent aments

1′—1½′ in length, produced at the base of branchlets of the year from

the axils of bud-scales, and often of leaves, scurfy pubescent, their

bract ovate, acuminate, a third longer than the calyx-lobes; stamens 4

or 5, anthers yellow, slightly villose near the apex; pistillate in 1 or

2-flowered spikes, obovoid, thickly covered, like their bracts, with

yellow scales. Fruit obovoid, gradually narrowed, rounded and sometimes

slightly depressed at apex, narrowed below into a short stipe-like base,

occasionally slightly winged at the sutures, often roughened by

prominent reticulate ridges, puberulous and covered with small yellow

scales, ⅘′—1½′ long, ¾′—1′ in diameter with a husk 1/12′—⅛′ thick,

splitting freely to the base by 2 or 3 sutures; nut pale or reddish,

subglobose, not more than ⅗′ in diameter, or ovoid or rarely oblong,

acute at base, narrowed and rounded at apex, slightly compressed, with a

shell 1/12′—⅛′ in thickness.

A tree 50°—70° high with a trunk up to 20′ in diameter, slender

spreading branches forming a broad head, and slender branchlets at first

coated with rufous pubescence, soon puberulous or glabrous, bright

red-brown and marked by pale lenticels during their first winter; or in

dry sand often a shrub producing abundant fruit on stems 3° or 4° high.

Winter-buds ovoid, acute or obtuse, the outer scales covered with thick

rusty pubescence and more or less thickly with yellow or rarely silvery

scales, the inner coated with pale pubescence; the terminal ⅕′—⅓′ in

length and twice as large as the axillary buds. Bark slightly ridged,

close dark gray-brown. Wood dark brown, with pale sapwood; probably used

only for fuel.

Distribution. Dry sandy ridges and low hills, Florida; east coast,

Volusia County to Jupiter Island, Palm Beach County; in the interior of

the peninsula as a shrub, from Orange to De Soto Counties, and on the

shores of Pensacola Bay.

15. Carya Buckleyi Durand.

_Carya texana_ Buckl., not Le Conte.

[Illustration: Fig. 188]

Leaves 8′—12′ long, with slender petioles rusty pubescent and sparingly

villose early in the season, and 5—7, usually 7, lanceolate to

oblanceolate acuminate bluntly serrate sessile leaflets, the terminal

occasionally broadly obovate and abruptly pointed, and sometimes raised

on a winged stalk ¼—½′ in length, when they unfold thickly covered with

rusty pubescence mixed with small white scales and villose on the lower

side of the midrib and veins, and at maturity dark green, lustrous,

glabrous or puberulous along the midrib above, paler, glabrous or

sparingly villose and furnished with small tufts of axillary hairs

below, the upper three leaflets 4′—6′ long and 2′—2¼′ wide, and twice

the size of those of the lowest pair. Flowers: staminate in rusty

pubescent aments 2′—3′ long, their bract slender, long acuminate, 3 or 4

times longer than the acuminate calyx-lobes; stamens 4 or 5, anthers

yellow, slightly villose toward the apex; pistillate in 1 or 2-flowered

short-stalked spikes, slightly angled, thickly coated with rufous hairs

like the bract and bractlets. Fruit subglobose, puberulous, 1¼′—1¾′ in

diameter, with a husk 1/12′—⅛′ thick, splitting freely to the base by

slightly winged sutures; nut slightly compressed, rounded at base,

abruptly narrowed and acute at apex, 4-angled above the middle or nearly

to the base, dark reddish brown, conspicuously reticulate-venulose with

pale veins, with a shell about ⅛′ thick; in drying often cracking

longitudinally between the angles; seed small and sweet.

A tree, usually 30°—45° or rarely 60° high, with a trunk 12′—24′ in

diameter, large spreading often drooping more or less contorted branches

forming a narrow head, and slender light red-brown branchlets marked by

pale lenticels, more or less densely rusty pubescent during their first

season and dark gray-brown and glabrous or nearly glabrous the following

year. Winter-buds ovoid, covered with rusty pubescence mixed with

silvery scales, furnished at apex with long pale hairs; the terminal bud

abruptly contracted and long-pointed at apex, ⅖′—½′ in length and ¼′—⅓′

in diameter, and 2 or 3 times larger than the flattened acute lateral

buds. Bark thick, deeply furrowed, rough, dark often nearly black. Wood

hard, brittle, little used except for fuel.

Distribution. Dry sandy uplands with Post and Black Jack Oaks; northern

and eastern Texas (Grayson, Cherokee, San Augustine and Atascosa

Counties), and in central Oklahoma (dry sand hills, Muskogee County).

Carya Buckleyi var. arkansana Sarg.

_Carya arkansana_ Sarg.

[Illustration: Fig. 189]

Differing from _Carya Buckleyi_ in the shape of the fruit and sometimes

in the bark of the trunk. Fruit obovoid, rounded at apex, rounded or

gradually narrowed or abruptly contracted into a more or less developed

stipe at base, or ellipsoidal, or ovoid and rounded at the ends, ⅘′—1½′

in length and in diameter, with a husk 1/12′—⅙′ thick, splitting to the

middle or nearly to the base by slightly winged sutures; nut oblong to

slightly obovoid, rounded at the ends, compressed, slightly 4-angled

occasionally to the middle, pale brown, with a shell ⅙′—⅕′ in thickness;

seed small and sweet.

A tree from 60°—75° high, with a trunk 2° in diameter; southward usually

much smaller. Bark on some trees dark gray, irregularly fissured,

separating into thin scales, and on others close, nearly black and

deeply divided into rough ridges.

Distribution. Dry hillsides, rocky ridges, or southward on sandy upland;

southwestern Indiana (Knox County), southern Illinois, northeastern

Missouri and southward through Missouri and Arkansas to eastern

Oklahoma, western Louisiana and northern and eastern Texas to the valley

of the Atascosa River, Atascosa County; the common Hickory of the Ozark

Mountain region, Arkansas, and here abundant on dry rocky ridges at

altitudes of 1200°—1800°; in Texas the common Hickory from the coast to

the base of the Edwards Plateau; trees with the smallest fruit

northward; those with the largest fruit with thickest husks in

Louisiana, and in southern Arkansas (f. _pachylemma_ Sarg.), a tree with

slender nearly glabrous branchlets, deeply fissured pale gray bark,

rusty pubescent winter-buds and fruit 2½′ long and 2′ in diameter, with

a husk ½′ in thickness.

Carya Buckleyi var. villosa Sarg.

_Hicoria glabra_ var. _villosa_ Sarg.

_Hicoria villosa_ Ashe.

_Carya villosa_ Schn.

_Carya glabra_ var. _villosa_ Robins.

[Illustration: Fig. 190]

Leaves 6′—10′ long, with slender petioles and rachis pubescent with

fascicled hairs early in the season, generally becoming glabrous, and

5—7, usually 7, lanceolate to oblanceolate finely serrate leaflets

long-pointed and acuminate at apex, cuneate or rounded and often

unsymmetrical at base, sessile or the terminal leaflet sometimes

short-stalked, dark green and glabrous above, pale and pubescent below,

the lower side of the midrib often covered with fascicled hairs, the

upper leaflets 3′—4′ long and 1′—1½′ wide, and twice as long as those of

the lowest pair. Flowers: staminate in aments pubescent with fascicled

hairs, 4′—8′ long, pubescent, their bract acuminate, not much longer

than the rounded calyx-lobes; pistillate in 1 or 2-flowered spikes,

rusty pubescent, slightly angled. Fruit obovoid to ellipsoidal, rounded

at apex, cuneate and often abruptly narrowed into a stipitate base,

rusty pubescent and covered with scattered yellow scales, about 1′ long

and ¾′ in diameter, with a husk 1/12′ in thickness, splitting tardily to

the base by 1 or 2 sutures or indehiscent; nut ovoid, rounded at base,

pointed at apex, only slightly angled, faintly tinged with red, with a

shell rarely more than 1/12′ in thickness; seed small and sweet.

A tree 30°—40° high, with a trunk 12′—18′ in diameter, stout often

contorted branches and slender branchlets covered at first with rusty

pubescence mixed with fascicled hairs and pubescent or glabrous during

their first winter. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, covered with rusty

pubescence mixed with yellow scales, often furnished near the apex with

tufts of white hairs, the terminal ¼′ long and about twice as large as

the compressed axillary buds.

Distribution. Dry rocky hills, Allenton, Saint Louis County, Missouri.

Distinct from other forms of _Carya Buckleyi_ in the often indehiscent

fruit and more numerous and longer fascicled hairs, and possibly better

considered a species.

IX. BETULACEÆ.

Trees, with sweet watery juice, without terminal buds, their slender

terete branchlets marked by numerous pale lenticels and lengthening by

one of the upper axillary buds formed in early summer, and alternate

simple penniveined usually doubly serrate deciduous stalked leaves,

obliquely plicately folded along the primary veins, their petioles in

falling leaving small semioval slightly oblique scars showing three

equidistant fibro-vascular bundle-scars; stipules inclosing the leaf in

the bud, fugacious. Flowers vernal, appearing with or before the

unfolding of the leaves, or rarely autumnal, monœcious, the staminate

1—3 together in the axils of the scales of an elongated pendulous

lateral ament and composed of a 2—4-parted membranaceous calyx and 2—20

stamens inserted on a receptacle, with distinct filaments and 2-celled

erect extrorse anthers opening longitudinally, or without a calyx, the

pistillate in short lateral or capitate aments, with or without a calyx,

a 2-celled ovary, narrowed into a short style divided into two elongated

branches longer than the scales of the ament and stigmatic on the inner

face or at the apex, and a single anatropous pendulous ovule in each

cell of the ovary. Fruit a small mostly 1-celled 1-seeded nut, the outer

layer of the shell light brown, thin and membranaceous, the inner thick,

hard, and bony. Seed solitary by abortion, filling the cavity of the

nut, suspended, without albumen, its coat membranaceous, light

chestnut-brown; cotyledons thick and fleshy, much longer than the short

superior radicle turned toward the minute hilum.

Of the six genera, all confined to the northern hemisphere, five are

found in North America; of these only Corylus is shrubby.

CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN ARBORESCENT GENERA.

Scales of the pistillate ament deciduous; nut wingless, more or less

inclosed in an involucre formed by the enlargement of the bract

and bractlets of the flower; staminate flowers solitary in the

axils of the scales of the ament; calyx 0; pistillate flowers

with a calyx.

Staminate aments covered during the winter: involucre of the fruit

flat, 3-cleft, foliaceous.

1. Carpinus.

Staminate aments naked during the winter: involucre of the fruit

bladder-like, closed.

2. Ostrya.

Scales of the pistillate ament persistent and forming a woody

strobile; nut without an involucre, more or less broadly winged;

staminate flowers 3—6 together in the axils of the scales of the

ament; calyx present; pistillate flowers without a calyx.

Pistillate aments solitary, their scales 3-lobed, becoming thin,

brown, and woody, deciduous; stamens 2; filaments 2-branched,

each division bearing a half-anther; winter-buds covered by

imbricated scales.

3. Betula.

Pistillate aments racemose, their scales erose or 5-toothed,

becoming thick, woody, and dark-colored, persistent; stamens

1—3 or 4; filaments simple; wings of the nut often reduced to

a narrow border; winter-buds without scales.

4. Alnus.

1. CARPINUS L. Hornbeam.

Trees, with smooth close bark, hard strong close-grained wood, elongated

conic buds covered by numerous imbricated scales, the inner lengthening

after the opening of the buds. Leaves open and concave in the bud,

ovate, acute, often cordate; stipules strap-shaped to oblong-obovate.

Flowers: staminate in aments emerging in very early spring from buds

produced the previous season near the ends of short lateral branchlets

of the year and inclosed during the winter, composed of 3—20 stamens

crowded on a pilose receptacle adnate to the base of a nearly sessile

ovate acute coriaceous scale longer than the stamens; filaments short,

slender, 2-branched, each branch bearing a 1-celled oblong yellow

half-anther hairy at the apex; pistillate in lax semi-erect aments

terminal on leafy branches of the year, in pairs at the base of an ovate

acute leafy deciduous scale, each flower subtended by a small acute

bract with two minute bractlets at its base; calyx adnate to the ovary

and dentate on the free narrow border. Nut ovoid, acute, compressed,

conspicuously longitudinally ribbed, bearing at the apex the remnants of

the calyx, marked on the broad base by a large pale scar and separating

at maturity in the autumn from the leaf-like 3-lobed conspicuously

serrate green involucre formed by the enlargement of the bract and

bractlets of the flower and inclosing only the base of the nut, fully

grown at mid-summer and loosely imbricated into a long-stalked open

cluster. (_Eucarpinus._)

Carpinus is confined to the northern hemisphere, and is distributed from

the Province of Quebec through the eastern United States to the

highlands of Central America in the New World, and from Sweden to

southern Europe, Asia Minor, the temperate Himalayas, Korea, southern

China, Japan and Formosa in the Old World. Fifteen or sixteen species

are recognized. Of the exotic species, the European and west Asian

_Carpinus Betulus_ L. is frequently planted as an ornamental tree in the

northeastern United States, where some of the species of eastern Asia

promise to become valuable.

_Carpinus_ is the classical name of the Hornbeam.

1. Carpinus caroliniana Walt. Hornbeam. Blue Beech.

[Illustration: Fig. 191]

Leaves often somewhat falcate, long-pointed, sharply doubly serrate with

stout spreading glandular teeth, except at the rounded or wedge-shaped

often unequal base, pale bronze-green, and covered with long white hairs

when they unfold, at maturity thin and firm, pale dull blue-green above,

light yellow-green and glabrous or puberulous below, with small tufts of

white hairs in the axils of the veins, 2′—4′ long, 1′—1¾′ wide, with a

slender yellow midrib, numerous slender veins deeply impressed and

conspicuous above, and prominent cross veinlets; turning deep scarlet

and orange color late in the autumn; petioles slender, terete, hairy,

about ⅓′ long, bright red while young; stipules ovate-lanceolate, acute,

pubescent, hairy on the margins, bright red below, light yellow-green at

the apex, ⅓′ long. Flowers: staminate aments 1½′ long when fully grown,

with broadly ovate acute boat-shaped scales green below the middle,

bright red above; pistillate aments ½′—¾′ long, with ovate acute hairy

green scales; styles scarlet. Fruit: nut ⅓′ long, its involucre

short-stalked, with one of the lateral lobes often wanting, coarsely

serrate, but usually on one margin only of the middle lobe, 1′—1½′ long,

nearly 1′ wide, crowded on slender terete pubescent red-brown stems

5′—6′ in length.

A bushy tree, rarely 40° high, with a short fluted trunk occasionally 2°

in diameter, long slightly zigzag slender tough spreading branches

pendulous toward the ends, and furnished with numerous short thin

lateral branches growing at acute angles, and branchlets at first pale

green coated with long white silky hairs, orange-brown and sometimes

slightly pilose during the summer, becoming dark red and lustrous during

their first winter and ultimately dull gray tinged with red. Winter-buds

ovoid, acute, about ⅛′ long, with ovate acute chestnut-brown scales

white and scarious on the margins. Bark light gray-brown, sometimes

marked with broad dark brown horizontal bands, 1/16′—⅛′ thick. Wood

light brown, with thick nearly white sapwood; sometimes used for levers,

the handles of tools, and other small articles.

Distribution. Borders of streams and swamps, generally in deep rich

moist soil; Nova Scotia and southern and western Quebec to the northern

shores of Georgian Bay, southward to the shores of Indian River and

those of Tampa Bay, Florida, and westward to central Minnesota, eastern

Iowa (Sharpy County), eastern Nebraska (reported), eastern Kansas,

eastern Oklahoma, and eastern Texas; reappearing on the mountains of

southern Mexico and Central America; common in the eastern and central

states; most abundant and of its largest size on the western slopes of

the southern Alleghany Mountains and in southern Arkansas and eastern

Texas.

2. OSTRYA Scop. Hop Hornbeam.

Trees, with scaly bark, heavy hard strong close-grained wood, and acute

elongated winter-buds formed in early summer and covered by numerous

imbricated scales, the inner lengthening after the opening of the bud.

Leaves open and concave in the bud; petioles slender, nearly terete,

hairy; stipules strap-shaped to oblong-obovate. Flowers: staminate in

long clustered sessile or short-stalked aments developed in early summer

from lateral buds near the ends of short lateral branchlets of the year

and coated while young with hoary tomentum, naked and conspicuous during

the winter, and composed of 3—14 stamens crowded on a pilose receptacle

adnate to the base of an ovate concave scale rounded and abruptly

short-pointed at the apex, ciliate on the margins, longer than the

stamens; filaments short, 2-branched, each branch bearing a 1-celled

half-anther hairy at the apex; pistillate in erect lax aments terminal

on short leafy branches of the year, in pairs at the base of an

elongated ovate acute leaf-like ciliate scale persistent until

midsummer, each flower inclosed in a hairy sack-like involucre formed by

the union of a bract and 2 bractlets; calyx adnate to the ovary,

denticulate on the free narrow border. Nut ovoid, acute, flattened,

obscurely longitudinally ribbed, crowned with the remnants of the calyx,

marked at the narrow base by a small circular pale scar, inclosed in the

much enlarged pale membranaceous conspicuously longitudinally veined

reticulate-venulose involucres of the flower, short, pointed and hairy

at the apex, hirsute at the base, with sharp rigid stinging hairs,

imbricated into a short strobile fully grown at midsummer, and suspended

on a slender hairy stem.

Ostrya is widely distributed in the northern hemisphere from Nova Scotia

to Texas, northern Arizona, and to the highlands of southern Mexico and

Guatemala in the New World, and through southern Europe and southwestern

Asia, and in northern Japan and on the Island of Quelpart in the Old

World. Of the four species now recognized two are North American.

_Ostrya_ is the classical name of the Hop Hornbeam.

CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES.

Leaves oblong-lanceolate, acuminate or acute at apex.

1. O. virginiana (A, C).

Leaves elliptic or obovate, acute or rounded at apex.

2. O. Knowltonii (F).

1. Ostrya virginiana K. Koch. Hop Hornbeam. Ironwood.

[Illustration: Fig. 192]

Leaves oblong-lanceolate, gradually narrowed into a long slender point

or acute at apex, narrowed and rounded, cordate, or wedge-shaped at the

often unequal base, sharply serrate, with slender incurved callous teeth

terminating at first in tufts of caducous hairs, when they unfold light

bronze-green, glabrous above and coated below on the midrib and primary

veins with long pale hairs, at maturity thin and extremely tough, dark

dull yellow-green above, light yellow-green and furnished with

conspicuous tufts of pale hairs in the axils of the veins below, 3′—5′

long, 1½′—2′ wide, with a slender midrib impressed and puberulous above,

light yellow and pubescent below, and numerous slender veins forked near

the margins; turning clear yellow before falling in the autumn; petioles

hairy about ¼′ long; stipules rounded and often short-pointed at apex,

ciliate on the margins with long pale hairs, hairy on the back, about ½′

long and ⅛′ wide. Flowers: staminate aments about ½′ long during their

first season, with light red-brown rather loosely imbricated scales

narrowed into a long slender point, becoming when the flowers open 2′

long, with broadly obovate scales rounded and abruptly contracted at

apex into a short point, ciliate on the margins, green tinged with red

above the middle, light brown toward the base; pistillate aments

slender, about ¼′ long, on thin hairy stems, their scales lanceolate,

acute, light green, often flushed with red above the middle, hirsute at

the apex, decreasing in size from the lowest. Fruit: nuts ⅓′ long, about

⅛′ wide, rather abruptly narrowed below the apex, their involucres in

clusters 1½′—2′ long and ⅔′—1′ wide, on slender hairy stems about 1′ in

length.

A tree, occasionally 50°—60° high, with a short trunk 2° in diameter,

usually not more than 20°—30° tall, with a trunk 18′—20′ thick, long

slender branches drooping at the ends and forming a round-topped or open

head frequently 50° across, and slender, very tough branchlets, light

green, coated with pale appressed hairs when they first appear, becoming

light orange color and very lustrous by midsummer, glabrous, dark

red-brown and lustrous during their first winter, and then growing

gradually darker brown and losing their lustre; or covered like the

petioles and peduncles with short erect glandular hairs (var.

_glandulosa_ Sarg.). Winter-buds ovoid, light chestnut-brown, slightly

puberulous, ¼′ long. Bark about ¼′ thick, broken into thick narrow

oblong closely appressed plate-like light brown scales slightly tinged

with red on the surface. Wood strong, hard, tough, durable, light brown

tinged with red or often nearly white, with thick pale sapwood of 40—50

layers of annual growth; used for fence-posts, handles of tools,

mallets, and other small articles.

Distribution. Dry gravelly slopes and ridges often in the shade of oaks

and other large trees; Island of Cape Breton and the shores of the Bay

of Chaleur, through the valley of the St. Lawrence River, and along the

northern shores of Lake Huron to western Ontario, Manitoba, Minnesota,

eastern North Dakota, the foothills of the Black Hills of South Dakota,

eastern, northern and northwestern Nebraska, eastern Kansas and

Oklahoma, and southward to northern Florida and eastern Texas; most

abundant and of its largest size in southern Arkansas and in Texas. From

Quebec and Ontario to western New England, western New York, Ohio and in

Central Michigan, the glandular form prevails: the two forms occur in

New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, northern Illinois, southwestern

Missouri, Oklahoma, and southward on the high Appalachian Mountains.

2. Ostrya Knowltonii Cov. Ironwood.

[Illustration: Fig. 193]

Leaves elliptic to obovate, acute or round at apex, gradually narrowed

and often unequal at the rounded cuneate rarely cordate base, sharply

serrate with small triangular callous teeth, covered with loose pale

tomentum when they unfold, at maturity dark yellow-green and pilose

above, pale and soft-pubescent below, 1′—2′ long, 1′—1½′ wide, with a

slender yellow midrib slightly raised on the upper side, and slender

primary veins connected by obscure reticulate veinlets; turning dull

yellow in the autumn before falling; petioles ⅛′—¼′ long; stipules pale

yellow-green, often tinged with red toward the apex, ½′ long, about ½′

wide. Flowers: staminate aments on stout stalks covered with rufous

tomentum and sometimes ½′ long, rarely sessile, about ½′ long during

their first season, with dark brown puberulous scales gradually

contracted into a long slender subulate point, becoming when the flowers

open 1′—1¼′ long, with broadly ovate concave scales abruptly narrowed

into a nearly triangular point, yellow-green near the base, bright red

above the middle; pistillate aments about ¼′ long, with ovate-lanceolate

light yellow-green puberulous scales ciliate on the margins. Fruit: nuts

¼′ long, gradually narrowed at the apex, their involucres 1′ long,

nearly glabrous at the apex, sometimes slightly stained with red toward

the base, in clusters 1′—1½′ long and about ¾′ broad, on stems ½′ in

length.

A tree 20°—30° high, with a trunk 12′—18′ in diameter, usually divided

1° or 2° above the ground into 3 or 4 stout upright stems 4′—5′ thick,

slender pendulous often much contorted branches forming a narrow

round-topped symmetrical head, and slender branchlets dark green and

coated with hoary tomentum when they first appear, dark red-brown and

pubescent during their first summer, becoming light cinnamon-brown,

glabrous, and lustrous in the winter, and ultimately ashy gray.

Winter-buds ovoid, dark brownish red, about ⅛′ long. Bark internally

bright orange color, ⅛′ thick, separating into loose hanging plate-like

scales light gray slightly tinged with red, and 1′—2′ long and wide.

Wood light reddish brown, with thin sapwood.

Distribution. On the southern slope of the cañon of the Colorado River

in Coconino County, Arizona, at altitudes of 6000°—7000° above the sea

(Hance trail, seventy miles north of Flagstaff); in the cañon of Oak

Creek, south of Flagstaff (_P. Lowell_); and on Grand River, Utah (Moab,

Grant County, _M. E. Jones_).

3. BETULA L. Birch.

Trees, with smooth resinous bark marked by long longitudinal lenticels,

often separating freely into thin papery plates, becoming thick, deeply

furrowed, and scaly at the base of old trunks, short slender branches

more or less erect and forming on young trees a narrow symmetrical

pyramidal head, becoming horizontal and often pendulous on older trees,

tough branchlets, short stout spur-like 2-leaved lateral branchlets much

roughened by the crowded leaf-scars of many years, and elongated

winter-buds covered by numerous ovate acute scales, and fully grown and

bright green at midsummer. Leaves open and convex in the bud, often

incisely lobed; stipules ovate and acute or oblong-obovate, scarious.

Flowers in 3-flowered cymes, the lateral flowers of the cyme subtended

by bractlets adnate to the base of the scale of the ament; staminate

aments long, pendulous, solitary or clustered, appearing in summer or

autumn in the axils of the last leaves of a branchlet or near the ends

of short lateral branchlets, erect and naked during the winter, their

scales in the spring broadly ovate, rounded, short-stalked, yellow or

orange-color below the middle and dark chestnut-brown and lustrous above

it; staminate flowers composed of a membranaceous 4-lobed calyx often

2-lobed by suppression, the anterior lobe obovate, rounded at apex, as

long as the stamens, much longer than the minute posterior lobe, and of

2 stamens inserted on the base of the calyx, with short 2-branched

filaments, each branch bearing an erect half-anther; pistillate aments

oblong or cylindric, terminal on the short spur-like lateral branchlets,

their scales closely imbricated, oblong-ovate, 3-lobed, light yellow,

often tinged with red above the middle, accrescent, becoming brown and

woody at maturity, and forming sessile or stalked erect or pendulous

short or elongated strobiles usually ripening in the autumn, deciduous

with the nuts from the slender rachis; calyx of the pistillate flower 0;

ovary sessile, compressed, with styles stigmatic at apex. Nut minute,

oval or obovoid, compressed, bearing at the apex the persistent stigmas,

marked at the base by a small pale scar, the outer coat of the shell

produced into a marginal wing interrupted at the apex.

Betula is widely distributed from the Arctic circle to Texas in the New

World, and to southern Europe, the Himalayas, China, and Japan in the

Old World, some species forming great forests at the north, or covering

high mountain slopes. Of the twenty-eight or thirty species now

recognized twelve are found in North America; of these nine are trees.

Of exotic species the European and Asiatic _Betula pendula_ Roth. in a

number of forms is a common ornamental tree in the northern states,

where several of the Birch-trees of eastern Asia also flourish. Many of

the species produce wood valued by the cabinet-maker, or used in the

manufacture of spools, shoe-lasts, and other small articles. The thin

layers of the bark are impervious to water and are used to cover

buildings, and for shoes, canoes, and boxes. The sweet sap provides an

agreeable beverage.

_Betula_ is the classical name of the Birch-tree.

CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN ARBORESCENT SPECIES.

Strobiles oblong-ovoid, nearly sessile, erect, the lateral lobes of

their scales broad and slightly divergent; wing not broader than

the nut; leaves with 9—11 pairs of veins; bark of young branches

aromatic.

Leaves heart-shaped or rounded at base; scales of the strobiles

glabrous; bark dark brown, not separating into thin layers.

1. B. lenta (A, C).

Leaves cuneate or slightly heart-shaped at base; scales of the

strobiles pubescent; bark yellow, or silvery white, rarely

dull yellowish brown; separating into thin layers.

2. B. lutea (A).

Strobiles oblong or cylindric, erect, spreading or pendant, on slender

peduncles; wing broader than the nut; leaves with 5—9 pairs of

veins.

Strobiles oblong, erect, ripening in May or June, their scales

pubescent, deeply lobed, the lateral lobes erect; leaves

rhombic-ovate, glaucescent and more or less silky-pubescent

beneath; bark light reddish-brown, separating freely into thin

persistent scales.

3. B. nigra (A, C).

Strobiles cylindric, pendant or spreading.

Scales of the strobiles pubescent, with recurved lateral lobes,

the middle lobe triangular, nearly as broad as long; leaves

long-pointed; petioles slender, elongated.

Leaves triangular to rhombic, bright green and lustrous; bark

chalky white, not separable into thin layers.

4. B. populifolia (A).

Leaves ovate, cuneate to truncate or rounded at base, dull

blue-green; bark white tinged with pink, lustrous, not

easily separable into thin layers.

5. B. cœrulea (A).

Scales of the strobiles with ascending or spreading lateral lobes,

the middle lobe usually acuminate, longer than broad; leaves

acute or acuminate.

Bark separating freely into thin layers; scales of the strobiles

glabrous.

Bark creamy white, or in some forms orange-brown; leaves

ovate.

6. B. papyrifera (A, B, C, F).

Bark dull reddish brown or nearly white; leaves rhombic to

deltoid-ovate.

7. B. alaskana (A, B).

Bark not separable into thin layers, dark brown; scales of the

strobiles glabrous or puberulous; branchlets glandular.

Leaves ovate, acute or acuminate, truncate or rounded at the

broad base.

8. B. fontinalis (B, F, G).

Leaves broad-ovate to elliptic, acute, rounded or abruptly

short-pointed, cuneate at base.

9. B. Eastwoodæ (F).

1. Betula lenta L. Cherry Birch. Black Birch.

[Illustration: Fig. 194]

Leaves ovate to oblong-ovate, acute or acuminate, gradually narrowed and

often unequal at the cordate or rounded base, sharply serrate with

slender incurved teeth, or very rarely laciniately lobed (f. _laciniata_

Rehdr.), when they unfold light green, coated on the lower surface with

long white silky hairs, and slightly hairy on the upper surface, at

maturity thin and membranaceous, dark dull green above, light

yellow-green below, with small tufts of white hairs in the axils of the

veins, 2½′—6′ long, 1½′—3′ wide, with a yellow midrib and primary veins

prominent and hairy on the lower surface, and obscure reticulate cross

veinlets; turning bright clear yellow late in the autumn; petioles

stout, hairy, deeply grooved on the upper side, ¾′—1′ long; stipules

ovate, acute, light green or nearly white, scarious and ciliate above

the middle. Flowers: staminate aments during the winter about ¾′ long,

nearly ¼′ thick, with ovate acute apiculate scales bright red-brown

above the middle and light brown below it, becoming 3′—4′ long;

pistillate aments ½′—¾′ long, about ⅛′ thick, with ovate pale green

scales rounded at the apex; styles light pink. Fruit: strobiles

oblong-ovoid, sessile, erect, glabrous, 1′—1½′ long, about ½′ thick; nut

obovoid, pointed at base, rounded at apex, about as broad as its wing.

A tree, with aromatic bark and leaves, 70°—80° high, with a trunk 2°—5°

in diameter, slender branches spreading almost at right angles, becoming

pendulous toward the ends and gradually forming a narrow round-topped

open graceful head, and branchlets light green, slightly viscid and

pilose when they first appear, soon turning dark orange-brown, lustrous

during the summer, bright red-brown in their first winter, becoming

darker and finally dark dull brown slightly tinged with red. Winter-buds

ovoid, acute, about ¼′ long, with ovate acute light chestnut-brown

loosely imbricated scales, those of the inner ranks becoming ½′—¾′ long.

Bark on young stems and branches close, smooth, lustrous, dark brown

tinged with red, and marked by elongated horizontal pale lenticels,

becoming on old trunks ½′—¾′ thick, dull, deeply furrowed and broken

into large thick irregular plates covered with closely appressed scales.

Wood heavy, very strong and hard, close-grained, dark brown tinged with

red, with thin light brown or yellow sapwood of 70—80 layers of annual

growth; largely used for floors, in the manufacture of furniture and for

fuel, and occasionally in ship and boat-building. Sweet birch-oil

distilled from the wood and bark is used for medicinal purposes and for

flavoring as a substitute for oil of wintergreen, and beer is obtained

by fermenting the sugary sap.

Distribution. Rich uplands from southern Maine to northwestern Vermont,

and eastern Ohio and southward to northern Delaware and along the

Appalachian Mountains up to altitudes of 4000° to northern Georgia; in

Alabama, and in eastern Kentucky and Tennessee; a common forest tree at

the north, and of its largest size on the western slopes of the southern

Alleghany Mountains.

× _Betula Jackii_ Schn., a natural hybrid of _B. lenta_ with _B. pumila_

Michx., has appeared in the Arnold Arboretum.

2. Betula lutea Michx. Yellow Birch. Gray Birch.

[Illustration: Fig. 195]

Leaves ovate to oblong-ovate, acuminate or acute at apex, gradually

narrowed to the rounded cuneate or rarely heart-shaped usually oblique

base, sharply doubly serrate, when they unfold bronze-green or red, and

pilose with long pale hairs above and on the under side of the midrib

and veins, at maturity dull dark green above, yellow-green below, 3′—4½′

long, 1½′—2′ wide, with a stout midrib and primary veins covered below

near the base of the leaf with short pale or rufous hairs; turning clear

bright yellow in the autumn; petioles slender, pale yellow, hairy, ¾′—1′

long; stipules ovate, acute, light green tinged with pink above the

middle, about ½′ long. Flowers: staminate aments during the winter ¾′—1′

long, about ⅛′ thick, with ovate rounded scales light chestnut-brown and

lustrous above the middle, ciliate on the margins, becoming 3′—3½′ long

and ⅓′ thick; pistillate aments about ⅔′ long, with acute scales, pale

green below, light red and tipped with clusters of long white hair at

apex, and pilose on the back. Fruit: strobiles erect, sessile,

short-stalked, pubescent, 1′—1½′ long, about ¾′ thick; nut ellipsoidal

to obovoid, about ⅛′ long, rather broader than its wing.

A tree, with slightly aromatic bark and leaves, occasionally 100° high,

with a trunk 3°—4° in diameter, spreading and more or less pendulous

branches forming a broad round-topped head, and branchlets at first

green and covered with long pale hairs, light orange-brown and pilose

during their first summer, becoming glabrous and light brown slightly

tinged with orange, and ultimately dull and darker. Winter-buds about ¼′

long, somewhat viscid and covered with loose pale hairs during the

summer, becoming light chestnut-brown, acute, and slightly puberulous in

winter. Bark of young stems and of the branches bright silvery gray or

light orange color, very lustrous, separating into thin loose persistent

scales more or less rolled on the margins, becoming on old trees ½′

thick, reddish brown, and divided by narrow irregular fissures into

large thin plates covered with minute closely appressed scales, or

sometimes dull yellowish brown (_B. alleghaniensis_ Britt.). Wood heavy,

very strong, hard, close-grained, light brown tinged with red, with thin

nearly white sapwood; largely used for floors, in the manufacture of

furniture, button and tassel moulds, boxes, the hubs of wheels, and for

fuel.

Distribution. Moist uplands, and southward often in swamps; one of the

largest deciduous-leaved trees of northeastern America; Newfoundland and

along the northern shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the valley of

Rainy River, and southward to Long Island (Cold Spring Harbor) and

western New York, Pennsylvania, northern Delaware, southeastern Ohio,

northern Indiana, southwestern Wisconsin, northern, northeastern and

central Iowa, and from the mountains of Virginia and West Virginia to

the highest peaks of North Carolina and Tennessee at altitudes between

3000° and 5000°; very abundant and of its largest size in the eastern

provinces of Canada and in northern New York and New England; small and

rare in southern New England and southward.

× _Betula Purpusii_ Schn. believed to be a natural hybrid of _B. lutea_

with _B. pumila_ var. _glandulifera_ Regel has been found in Michigan

and in Tamarack Swamps in Hennepin, Pine and Anoka Counties, Minnesota.

3. Betula nigra L. Red Birch. River Birch.

[Illustration: Fig. 196]

Leaves rhombic-ovate, acute, abruptly or gradually narrowed and cuneate

at base, doubly serrate, and on vigorous young branches often more or

less laciniately cut into acute doubly serrate lobes, when they unfold

light yellow-green and pilose above and coated below, especially on the

midrib and petioles, with thick white tomentum, at maturity thin and

tough, 1½′—3′ long, 1′—2′ wide, deep green and lustrous above,

glabrescent, pubescent or ultimately glabrous below, except on the stout

midrib and remote primary veins; turning dull yellow in the autumn;

petioles slender, slightly flattened, tomentose, about ½′ long; stipules

ovate, rounded or acute at apex, pale green, covered below with white

hairs. Flowers: staminate aments clustered, during the winter about ⅞

long and 1/16′ thick, with ovate rounded dull chestnut-brown lustrous

scales, becoming 2′—3′ long and ⅛′ thick; pistillate aments about ⅓′

long, with bright green ovate scales pubescent on the back, rounded or

acute at apex, and ciliate with long white hairs. Fruit ripening in May

and June; strobiles cylindric, pubescent, 1′—1½′ long, ½′ thick, erect

on stout tomentose peduncles ½′ long; nut ovoid to ellipsoidal, ⅛′ in

length, pubescent or puberulous at apex, about as broad as its thin

puberulous wing, ciliate on the margin.

A tree, 80°—90° high, with a trunk often divided 15°—20° above the

ground into 2 or 3 slightly diverging limbs, and sometimes 5° in

diameter, slender branches forming in old age a narrow irregular

picturesque crown, and branchlets coated at first with thick pale or

slightly rufous tomentum gradually disappearing before winter, becoming

dark red and lustrous, dull red-brown in their second year, and then

gradually growing slightly darker until the bark separates into the thin

flakes of the older branches; or often sending up from the ground a

clump of several small spreading stems forming a low bushy tree.

Winter-buds ovoid, acute, about ¼′ long, covered in summer with thick

pale tomentum, glabrous or slightly puberulous, lustrous and bright

chestnut-brown in winter, the inner scales strap-shaped, light brown

tinged with red, and coated with pale hairs. Bark on young stems and

large branches thin, lustrous, light reddish brown or silvery gray,

marked by narrow slightly darker longitudinal lenticels, separating

freely into large thin papery scales persistent for several years, and

turning back and showing the light pink-brown tints of the freshly

exposed inner layers, becoming at the base of old trunks from ¾′—1′

thick, dark red-brown, deeply furrowed and broken on the surface into

thick closely appressed scales. Wood light, rather hard, strong,

close-grained, light brown, with pale sapwood of 40—50 layers of annual

growth; used in the manufacture of furniture, wooden ware, wooden shoes,

and in turnery.

Distribution. Banks of streams, ponds, and swamps, in deep rich soil

often inundated for several weeks at a time; near Manchester, Hillsboro

County, New Hampshire, northeastern Massachusetts, Long Island, New

York, southward to northern Florida through the region east of the

Alleghany Mountains except in the immediate neighborhood of the coast,

through the Gulf states to the valley of the Navasota River, Brazos

County, Texas, and through Arkansas, eastern Oklahoma, southeastern

Kansas, and Missouri to Tennessee and Kentucky, southern and eastern

Iowa, southern Minnesota, the valley of the Eau Claire River, Eau Claire

County, Wisconsin, southern Illinois, the valley of the Kankakee River,

Indiana, and southern Ohio; the only semiaquatic species and the only

species ripening its seeds in the spring or early summer; attaining its

largest size in the damp semitropical lowlands of Florida, Louisiana,

and Texas; the only Birch-tree of such warm regions.

Often cultivated in the northeastern states as an ornamental tree,

growing rapidly in cultivation.

4. Betula populifolia Marsh. Gray Birch. White Birch.

[Illustration: Fig. 197]

Leaves nearly triangular to rhombic, long-pointed, coarsely doubly

serrate with stout spreading glandular teeth except at the broad

truncate or slightly cordate or cuneate base, thin and firm, dark green

and lustrous and somewhat roughened on the upper surface early in the

season by small pale glands in the axils of the conspicuous reticulate

veinlets, 2½′—3′ long, 1½′—2½′ wide, with a stout yellow midrib covered

with minute glands, and raised and rounded on the upper side, and

obscure yellow primary veins; turning pale yellow in the autumn;

petioles slender, terete, covered with black glands, often stained with

red on the upper side, ¾′—1′ long; stipules broadly ovate, acute,

membranaceous, light green slightly tinged with red. Flowers: staminate

aments usually solitary or rarely in pairs, 1¼′—1½′ long, about ⅛′ thick

during the winter, becoming 2½′—4′ long, with ovate acute apiculate

scales; pistillate aments slender, as long as their glandular peduncles

about ½′ in length, with ovate acute pale green glandular scales. Fruit:

strobiles cylindric, pubescent, obtuse at apex, about ¾′ long and ⅓′

thick, pendant or spreading on slender stems; nut ellipsoidal to

obovoid, acute or rounded at base, a little narrower than its obovate

wing.

A short-lived tree, 20°—30° or exceptionally 40° high, with a trunk

rarely 18′ in diameter, short slender often pendulous more or less

contorted branches usually clothing the stem to the ground and forming a

narrow pyramidal head, and branchlets roughened by small raised

lenticels, resinous-glandular when they first appear, gradually growing

darker, bright yellow and lustrous before autumn like the young stems,

bright reddish brown during their first winter, and ultimately white

near the trunk; often growing in clusters of spreading stems springing

from the stumps of old trees. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, pale

chestnut-brown, glabrous, about ¼′ long. Bark about ⅓′ thick, dull

chalky white on the outer surface, bright orange on the inner, close and

firm, with dark triangular markings at the insertion of the branches,

becoming at the base of old trees thicker, nearly black, and irregularly

broken by shallow fissures. Wood light, soft, not strong, close-grained,

not durable, light brown, with thick nearly white sapwood; used in the

manufacture of spools, shoe-pegs and wood pulp, for the hoops of

barrels, and largely for fuel.

Distribution. Dry gravelly barren soil or on the margins of swamps and

ponds; Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the valley

of the lower St. Lawrence River southward to northeastern, central and

on South Mountain, Franklin County, Pennsylvania, and northern Delaware,

and westward through northern New England and New York, ascending

sometimes to altitudes of 1800°, to the southern shores of Lake Ontario,

and at the foot of Lake Michigan, Indiana; rare and local in the

interior, very abundant in the coast region of New England and the

middle states; springing up in great numbers on abandoned farm-lands or

on lands stripped by fire of their original forest covering; most

valuable in its ability to grow rapidly in sterile soil and to afford

protection to the seedlings of more valuable and less rapid-growing

trees.

A form with deeply divided leaves (var. _laciniata_ Loud.) and one with

purple leaves (var. _purpurea_ E & B) are occasionally cultivated.

A shrub believed to be a natural hybrid of _B. populifolia_ with _B.

pumila_ Michx. has been found near Mt. Mansfield, Vermont.

5. Betula cœrulea Blanch. Blue Birch.

[Illustration: Fig. 198]

Leaves ovate, long-pointed, broadly or narrowly concave-cuneate at the

entire often unequal base, sharply mostly doubly serrate above with

straight or incurved glandular often apiculate teeth, covered above when

they unfold with pale deciduous glands, at maturity dull bluish green

above, pale yellow-green below, and sparingly villose along the under

side of the slender yellow midrib and primary veins, 2′—2½′ long, 1′—1½′

wide; petioles slender, ¾′—1¼′ long, yellow more or less deeply tinged

with red. Flowers: staminate aments usually in pairs, or singly or in

3’s, 1¼′—2′ long, about 3/16′ thick, with ovate rounded short-pointed

scales; pistillate aments slender, about ⅓′ long, with acuminate pale

green much reflexed scales. Fruit: strobiles cylindric, pubescent,

slightly narrowed at the obtuse apex, about 1′ long and ¼′ thick,

pendant on slender peduncles ¼′—½′ in length; nut ellipsoidal, much

narrower than its broad wing.

A tree, rarely more than 30° high, with a trunk 8′—10′ in diameter,

small ascending finally spreading branches, and slender branchlets

marked by numerous small raised pale lenticels, purplish and sparingly

villose when they first appear, soon glabrous, becoming bright

red-brown; often forming clumps of several stems. Bark thin, white

tinged with rose, lustrous, not readily separable into layers, the inner

bark light orange color.

Distribution. Moist slopes, Stratton and Windham, Windham County,

Vermont, at altitudes of about 1800° (_W. H. Blanchard_), Haystack

Mountain, Aroostook County, Maine (_M. L. Fernald_); the American

representative of the European _Betula pendula_ Roth., and probably

widely distributed over the hills of northern New England and eastern

Canada. Perhaps with its variety best considered a natural hybrid

between _B. papyrifera_ and _B. populifolia_.

Apparently passing into a form with larger leaves often rounded and

truncate at the broad base, 3′—3½′ long and 2′ wide, stouter staminate

aments, and strobiles frequently 1½′ long and ½′ thick (var.

_Blanchardii_ Sarg. fig. 198 A). This under favorable conditions is a

tree 60°—70° high, with a trunk 18′ in diameter; common with _Betula

cœrulea_ at Windham and Stratton, Vermont (_W. H. Blanchard_), and on a

hill near the coast in Washington County, Maine (_M. L. Fernald_).

6. Betula papyrifera Marsh. Canoe Birch. Paper Birch.

[Illustration: Fig. 199]

Leaves ovate, acute or acuminate with a short broad point, coarsely

usually doubly and often very irregularly serrate except at the rounded

abruptly cuneate or gradually narrowed base, bright green,

glandular-resinous, pubescent and clothed below on the midrib and

primary veins and on the petioles with long white hairs when they

unfold, at maturity thick and firm, dull dark green and glandless or

rarely glandular on the upper surface, light yellow-green and glabrous

or puberulous, with small tufts of pale hairs in the axils of the

primary veins and covered with many black glands on the lower surface,

2′—3′ long, 1½′—2′ wide, with a slender yellow midrib marked, like the

remote primary veins, with minute black glands, turning light clear

yellow in the autumn; petioles stout, yellow, glandular, glabrous or

pubescent, ½′—¾′ long; stipules ovate, acute, ciliate on the margins

with pale hairs, light green. Flowers: staminate aments clustered during

the winter, ¾′—1¼′ long, about ⅛′ thick, with ovate, acute scales light

brown below the middle, dark red-brown above it, becoming 3½′—4′ long,

and about ⅓′ thick; pistillate aments 1′—1¼′ long, about 1/16′ thick,

with light green lanceolate scales long-pointed and acute or rounded at

apex; styles bright red. Fruit: strobiles cylindric, glabrous, about 1½′

long and ⅓′ thick, hanging on slender stalks, their scales very rarely

entire (var. _elobata_ Sarg.); nut ellipsoidal, about 1/16′ long, much

narrower than its thin wing.

A tree, usually 60°—70° tall, with a trunk 2°—3° in diameter, becoming

in old age, or when crowded by other trees, branchless below and

supporting a narrow open head of short pendulous branches, and

branchlets at first light green, slightly viscid, marked by scattered

orange-colored oblong lenticels and covered with long pale hairs, dark

orange color and glabrous or pubescent during the summer, becoming dull

red in their first winter, gradually growing dark orange-brown, lustrous

for four or five years and ultimately covered with the white papery bark

of older branches. Winter-buds obovoid, acute, about ¼′ long, pubescent

below the middle and coated with resinous gum at midsummer, dark

chestnut-brown, glabrous and slightly resinous during the winter, their

inner scales becoming strap-shaped, rounded at apex, about ½′ long and

⅛′ wide. Bark on young trunks and large limbs thin, creamy white or

rarely bronze color or orange-brown and lustrous on the outer surface,

bright orange color on the inner, marked by long narrow slightly darker

colored raised lenticels, separating into thin papery layers, pale

orange color when first exposed to the light, becoming on old trunks for

a few feet above the ground sometimes ½′ thick, dull brown or nearly

black, sharply and irregularly furrowed and broken on the surface into

thick closely appressed scales. Wood light, strong, hard, tough, very

close-grained, light brown tinged with red, with thick nearly white

sapwood; largely used for spools, shoe-lasts, pegs, and in turnery, the

manufacture of wood-pulp, and for fuel. The tough resinous durable bark

impervious to water is used by all the northern Indians to cover their

canoes and for baskets, bags, drinking-cups, and other small articles,

and often to cover their wigwams in winter.

Distribution. Rich wooded slopes and the borders of streams, lakes, and

swamps scattered through forests of other trees; Labrador to the

southern shores of Hudson’s Bay, and southward to Long Island, New York,

northern Pennsylvania, central Michigan, northern Wisconsin,

northern-central Iowa, eastern Nebraska, North and South Dakota and

Wyoming; common in the maritime provinces of Canada and North of the

Great Lakes, and in northern New England and New York; small and

comparatively rare in the coast region of southern New England and

southward; on the highest mountains of New England and northward the

var. _minor_ S. Wats and Cov. is common as a small shrub.

Often planted in the northeastern states as an ornamental tree.

× _Betula Sandbergii_ Britt. and its f. _maxima_ Rosend. generally

believed to be natural hybrids of _B. papyrifera_ and _B. pumila_ var.

_glandulifera_ Regl. occur in Tamarack swamps in Hennepin County,

Minnesota.

Passing into the following varieties.

Betula papyrifera var. cordifolia Fern.

[Illustration: Fig. 200]

Leaves ovate, abruptly pointed and acuminate or acute at apex, cordate

at base, coarsely doubly serrate, glabrous or pilose on the under side

of the midrib and veins, often furnished below with axillary tufts of

pale hairs, 1½′—3′ long, 1′—2½′ wide; petioles glabrous or rarely

villose, ½′—¾′ in length. Fruit: strobiles ¾′—2′ long and ¼′—½′ thick,

on villose peduncles up to ¾′ in length; scales glabrous or pubescent.

A tree rarely more than 30° tall, with slender glabrous or pubescent

branchlets, and at high altitudes on the New England mountains reduced

to a low shrub. Bark separating in thin layers, white or dark reddish

brown.

Distribution. Labrador and Newfoundland to northern New England, and

westward to the shores of Green Bay, Wisconsin, and those of Lake

Superior, Minnesota (Grand Marais, Cook County); on Mt. Mitchell, North

Carolina, at an altitude of 5550° (_W. W. Ashe_).

Betula papyrifera var. subcordata Sarg.

_Betula subcordata_ Rydb.

[Illustration: Fig. 201]

Leaves ovate, acute or acuminate at apex, slightly cordate or rounded at

base, rarely slightly lobed above the middle, finely often doubly

serrate with teeth pointing forward or spreading, glabrous, 2′—2½′ long,

1′—1½′ wide; petioles sparingly villose or glabrous, ½′—¾′ in length.

Fruit: strobiles drooping on slender peduncles 1′—1½′ long, about ⅓′

thick, their scales puberulous, ciliate on the margins, the middle lobe

acute, rather longer than the broad truncate lateral lobes; nut obovoid,

cuneate at base, 1/12′ long, narrower than its wings.

A tree 25°—40° or occasionally 60° high, with a trunk 12′—18′ in

diameter, and slightly glandular glabrous red-brown branchlets. Bark

separating freely into thin layers, white or occasionally dark reddish

brown or orange color.

Distribution. Alberta (Crow Nest Pass, neighborhood of Jasper and

Cypress Hills), through northern Montana and Idaho to western

Washington, northeastern Oregon (Minum River Valley) and British

Columbia.

Betula papyrifera var. montanensis Sarg.

_Betula montanensis_ Butler.

[Illustration: Fig. 202]

Leaves broadly ovate, acute at apex, truncate or rounded at base to

oblong-ovate or lanceolate and long-pointed and acuminate at apex,

narrowed and rounded at base, coarsely doubly serrate, thick, dark green

above, paler, sparingly pubescent and furnished with conspicuous tufts

of axillary hairs below, 3′—5′ long, 2′—2¼′ wide; petioles puberulous,

¾′—1′ in length. Flowers unknown. Fruit: strobiles cylindric, 1¾′—2′

long, ½′ thick, pendent on puberulous peduncles ½′—¾′ in length, their

scales puberulous, finely ciliate on the margins, the slender base of

those below the middle of the ament rather more than twice as long as

the expanded upper portion of the scale.

A tree 40°—50° high, with a trunk 12′—18′ in diameter, and slender

branchlets red-brown, lustrous, marked by small pale lenticels and

puberulous during their first season. Winter-buds narrow-obovoid,

acuminate, dark red-brown, resinous, ⅓′ long. Bark white, or dark gray

or brown.

Distribution. Shore of Yellow Bay, Flathead Lake, Flathead County,

Montana, and at Sandpoint, Bonner County, Idaho.

Betula papyrifera var. occidentalis Sarg.

_Betula occidentalis_ Hook.

[Illustration: Fig. 203]

Leaves ovate, acute, or abruptly acuminate at apex, rounded or

occasionally cordate or rarely cuneate at the broad base, coarsely and

generally doubly serrate with straight or incurved glandular teeth, thin

and firm in texture, dull dark green above, pale yellow-green below, and

puberulous on both sides of the stout yellow midrib and slender primary

veins, 3′—4′ long, 1½′—2′ wide; petioles stout, glandular, at first

tomentose, ultimately pubescent or puberulous, about ¾′ long; stipules

oblong-obovate, rounded and acute or apisculate at apex, ciliate on the

margin, puberulous, glandular-viscid. Flowers: staminate aments during

the winter about ¾′ long and ⅛′ thick, with ovate scales rounded or

abruptly narrowed and acute at apex; puberulous on the outer surface,

ciliate on the margins, becoming 3′—4′ long and about ¼′ thick;

pistillate aments about 1′ long and 1/16′ thick, with acuminate bright

green scales. Fruit: strobiles cylindric, puberulous, spreading, 1¼′—1½′

long, ¼′—½′ thick, on stout peduncles ¾′ in length, their scales ciliate

on the margins; nut oval, about 1/16′ in length, and nearly as wide as

its wings.

A tree, 100°—120° high, with a trunk 3°—4° in diameter, comparatively

small branches often pendulous on old trees, and pale orange-brown

branchlets more or less glandular and coated with long pale hairs when

they first appear, becoming bright orange-brown and nearly destitute of

glands during their first winter, and in their second year orange-brown,

glabrous, and very lustrous. Winter-buds acute, bright orange-brown,

⅛′—¼′ long, their light brown inner scales sometimes becoming ¾′ in

length. Bark thin, marked by long oblong horizontal raised lenticels,

dark orange-brown or white, very lustrous, separating freely into thin

papery layers displaying in falling the bright orange-yellow inner bark.

Distribution. Banks of streams and lakes; southwestern British Columbia

and northwestern Washington and eastward through eastern Washington and

northern Idaho to northern Montana west of the continental divide;

nowhere common and probably of its largest size on the alluvial banks of

the lower Fraser River, and on the islands of Puget Sound.

Betula papyrifera var. kenaica A. Henry. Red Birch. Black Birch.

_Betula kenaica_ Evans.

[Illustration: Fig. 204]

Leaves ovate, acute or acuminate, broadly cuneate or somewhat rounded at

the entire base, irregularly coarsely often doubly serrate, glabrous,

dark dull green above, pale yellow-green below, 1½′—2′ long, 1′—1¾′

wide, with a slender yellow midrib and 5 pairs of thin primary veins;

petioles slender, ¾′—1′ long. Flowers: staminate aments clustered, 1′

long, with ovate acute scales apiculate at apex, puberulous on the outer

surface; pistillate aments, ⅓′—½′ long, about 1/16′ thick, on slender

glandular pubescent peduncles ½′—¾′ in length; scales acuminate light

green strongly reflexed; styles bright red. Fruit: strobiles cylindric,

glabrous, 1′ long, their scales ciliate on the margins; nut oval,

somewhat narrower than its thin wing.

A tree, 30°—40° high, with a trunk 12′—20′ in diameter, wide-spreading

branches, stout branchlets marked by numerous small pale lenticels,

bright red-brown during 2 or 3 years, gradually becoming darker. Bark

thin, more or less furrowed, very dark brown or nearly black near the

base of the trunk, grayish white or light reddish brown and separating

into thin layers higher on the stem and on the branches.

Distribution. Coast of Alaska from Cook Inlet southward to the head of

the Lynn Canal.

7. Betula alaskana Sarg. White Birch.

[Illustration: Fig. 205]

Leaves rhombic to deltoid-ovate, long-pointed, truncate, rounded or

broadly cuneate, or on leading shoots occasionally cordate at the entire

base, coarsely and often doubly glandular-serrate, thin, dark green

above, pale and yellow-green below, 1½′—3′ long, 1′—1½′ wide, with a

slender midrib and primary veins pubescent or ultimately glabrous below;

petioles often bright red, somewhat hairy at first, finally glabrous,

about 1′ long; Flowers: staminate aments clustered, sessile, 1′ long, ⅛′

thick, with ovate acuminate scales puberulous on the outer surface, and

bright red, with yellow margins; pistillate aments slender, cylindric,

glandular, 1′ long, ⅛′ thick, on stout peduncles nearly ½′ in length.

Fruit: strobiles glabrous, pendulous or spreading, 1′—1¼′ long, ⅓′—½′

thick, their scales ciliate on the margins; nut oval, narrower than its

broad wing.

A tree, usually 30°—40°, occasionally 80°, high, with a trunk 6′—12′ in

diameter, slender erect and spreading or pendulous branches, and

glabrous bright red-brown branchlets more or less thickly covered during

their first year with resinous glands sometimes persistent until the

second or third season. Winter-buds ovoid, obtuse at the gradually

narrowed apex, about ¼′ long, with light red-brown shining outer scales

sometimes ciliate on the margins, and oblong rounded scarious inner

scales hardly more than ½′ long when fully grown. Bark thin, marked by

numerous elongated dark slightly raised lenticels, dull reddish brown or

sometimes nearly white on the outer surface, light red on the inner

surface, close and firm, finally separable into thin plate-like scales.

Distribution. Valley of the Saskatchewan northwestward to the valley of

the Yukon, growing sparingly near the banks of streams in forests of

coniferous trees and in large numbers on sunny slopes and hillsides; the

common Birch-tree of the Yukon basin.

× _Betula commixta_ Sarg., a shrub, growing on the tundra near Dawson,

Yukon Territory, is believed to be a hybrid between _B. alaskana_ and

_B. glandulosa_ Michx.

8. Betula fontinalis Sarg. Black Birch.

[Illustration: Fig. 206]

Leaves ovate, acute or acuminate, sharply and often doubly serrate,

except at the rounded or abruptly cuneate often unequal base, and

sometimes slightly laciniately lobed, pale green, pilose above, and

covered by conspicuous resinous glands when they unfold, at maturity

thin and firm, dark dull green above, pale yellow-green, rather lustrous

and covered by minute glandular dots below, 1′—2′ long, ¾′—1′ wide, with

a slender pale midrib, remote glandular veins, and rather conspicuous

reticulate veinlets; turning dull yellow in the autumn; petioles stout,

puberulous, light yellow, glandular-dotted, flattened on the upper side,

often flushed with red, ⅓′—½′ long; stipules broadly ovate, acute or

rounded at apex, slightly ciliate, bright green, soon becoming pale and

scarious. Flowers: staminate aments clustered, ½′—¾′ long and 1/16′

thick during the winter, with ovate acute light chestnut-brown scales

pale and slightly ciliate on the margins, becoming 2′—2½′ long, and

about ⅛′ thick, with apiculate scales; pistillate aments short-stalked,

about ¾′ long, with ovate acute green scales; styles bright red. Fruit:

strobiles cylindric, rather obtuse, puberulous or nearly glabrous,

1′—1¼′ long, ½′ thick, erect or pendulous on slender glandular

peduncles, ¼′ to nearly ¾′ in length; their scales ciliate, puberulous,

the lateral lobes ascending, shorter than the middle lobe; nut ovoid or

obovoid, puberulous at apex, nearly as wide as its wing.

A tree 20°—25° high with a short trunk, rarely more than 12′ or 14′ in

diameter, ascending spreading and somewhat pendulous branches forming a

broad open head, and slender branchlets, when they first appear light

green glabrous or puberulous and covered with lustrous resinous glands

persistent during their second season, and dark red-brown in their first

winter; more commonly shrubby, with many thin spreading stems forming

open clusters, 15°—20° high; often much lower, and frequently crowded in

almost impenetrable thickets. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, very resinous,

chestnut-brown, ¼′ long. Bark about ¼′ thick, dark bronze color, very

lustrous, marked by pale brown longitudinal lenticels becoming on old

trunks often 6′—8′ long and ¼′ wide. Wood soft and strong, light brown,

with thick lighter-colored sapwood; sometimes used for fuel and fencing.

Distribution. Moist soil near the banks of streams usually in mountain

cañons; generally distributed, although nowhere very common: valley of

the Saskatchewan (Saskatoon), Saskatchewan, westward to the basin of the

upper Fraser and Pease Rivers, British Columbia, southward along the

Rocky Mountains to eastern Utah, northern New Mexico and Arizona, the

valleys of the Shasta region and the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada,

northern California, and eastward in the United States to the eastern

foothills of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, the Black Hills of South

Dakota, and northwestern Nebraska. Passing into

Betula fontinalis var. Piperi Sarg.

_Betula Piperi_ Britt.

[Illustration: Fig. 207]

A tree occasionally 50°—60° high with a tall trunk 12′—18′ in diameter,

short spreading branches, and usually longer and often narrower

strobiles.

Distribution. Spokane, Spokane County, Almota and Pullman, Whitman

County, eastern Washington.

9. Betula Eastwoodæ Sarg.

[Illustration: Fig. 208]

Leaves broad-ovate to elliptic, acute, rounded or abruptly short-pointed

at apex, coarsely serrate except at the cuneate base, thick, glabrous,

dark green above, pale below, reticulate-venulose, the veinlets more

conspicuous on the lower surface, 1′—1½′ long, ¾′—1½′ wide; petioles

slender, glabrous ⅕′—⅓′ in length; stipules scarious, ovate-oblong,

rounded at apex. Flowers: staminate aments usually solitary or in pairs,

sessile, 1′—1¼′ long, ⅕′ thick, with broadly ovate pubescent dark red

scales acute and apiculate at apex; pistillate aments ½′ long, about

1/12′ thick, with acute light green scales. Fruit: strobiles pendulous

on peduncles ⅓′—½′ long, cylindric, ¾′ in length, about ⅙′ thick, their

scales glabrous longer than broad, the lobes narrowed at the rounded

apex, ciliate, the lateral slightly spreading, one third shorter than

the terminal lobe.

A tree 18°—20° high, with a trunk rarely more than 6′ in diameter, and

slender red glabrous branchlets thickly covered with circular white

glands. Bark close, chestnut-brown, marked by conspicuous horizontal

white lenticels, about ⅕′ thick.

Distribution. Swamps near Dawson, Yukon Territory, forming jungles with

_Betula glandulosa_ Michx., _B. alaskana_ Sarg., and various Willows; as

a large shrub in Jasper Park near Jasper, Alberta.

4. ALNUS L. Alder.

Trees and shrubs, with astringent scaly bark, soft straight-grained

wood, naked stipitate winter-buds formed in summer and nearly inclosed

by the united stipules of the first leaf, becoming thick, resinous, and

dark red. Leaves open and convex in the bud, falling without change of

color; stipules of all but the first leaf ovate, acute, and scarious.

Flowers vernal, or rarely opening in the autumn from aments of the year,

in 1—3-flowered cymes in the axils of the peltate short-stalked scales

of stalked aments formed in summer or autumn in the axils of the last

leaves of the year or of those of minute leafy bracts; staminate aments

elongated, pendulous, paniculate, naked and erect during the winter,

each staminate flower subtended by 3—5 minute bractlets adnate to the

scales of the ament, and composed of a 4-parted calyx, and 1—3 or

usually 4 stamens inserted on the base of the calyx opposite its lobes,

with short simple filaments; pistillate aments ovoid or oblong, erect,

stalked, produced in summer in the axils of the leaves of a branch

developed from the axils of an upper leaf of the year, and below the

staminate inflorescence, inclosed at first in the stipules of the first

leaf, emerging in the autumn and naked during the winter, or remaining

covered until early spring; pistillate flowers in pairs, each flower

subtended by 2—4 minute bractlets adnate to the fleshy scale of the

ament becoming at maturity thick and woody, obovate, 3—5-lobed or

truncate at the thickened apex, forming an ovoid or subglobose strobile

persistent after the opening of its closely imbricated scales; calyx 0;

ovary compressed; nut minute, bright chestnut-brown, ovoid to oblong,

flat, bearing at the apex the remnants of the style, marked at the base

by a pale scar, the outer coat of the shell produced into lateral wings

often reduced to a narrow membranaceous border.

Alnus inhabits swamps, river bottom-lands, and high mountains, and is

widely and generally distributed through the northern hemisphere, often

forming the most conspicuous feature of vegetation on mountain slopes,

ranging at high altitudes southward in the New World through Central

America to Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia, and to upper Assam and Japan in

the Old World. Of the eighteen or twenty species now recognized nine are

North American; of these, six attain the size and habit of trees. Of the

exotic species, _Alnus vulgaris_ Hill., a common European, north

African, and Asiatic timber-tree, was introduced many years ago into the

northeastern states, where it has become locally naturalized. The wood

of Alnus is very durable in water, and the astringent bark and strobiles

are used in tanning leather and in medicine.

_Alnus_ is the classical name of the Alder.

CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN ARBORESCENT SPECIES.

Flowers opening in spring with or after the leaves; stamens 4;

pistillate aments inclosed during the winter; wing of the nut

broad; leaves ovate, sinuately lobed, lustrous on the lower

surface.

1. A. sinuata (B, F, G).

Flowers opening in winter or early spring before the unfolding of the

leaves; pistillate aments usually naked during the winter.

Wing of the nut broad; leaves ovate or elliptic, rusty-pubescent on

the lower surface; pistillate aments often inclosed during the

winter; stamens 4.

2. A. rubra (B, G).

Wing of the nut reduced to a narrow border.

Stamens 4; leaves oblong-ovate, glabrous or puberulous on the

lower surface.

3. A. tenuifolia (B, F, G).

Stamens usually 2, or 3.

Leaves ovate or oval.

4. A. rhombifolia (B, F, G).

Leaves oblong-lanceolate, acute.

5. A. oblongifolia (H).

Flowers opening in autumn from aments of the year; stamens 4; wing of

the nut reduced to a narrow border; leaves oblong-ovate or

obovate, dark green and lustrous above, pale yellow-green below.

6. A. maritima (A).

1. Alnus sinuata Rydb. Alder.

_Alnus sitchensis_ Sarg.

[Illustration: Fig. 209]

Leaves ovate, acute, full and rounded and often unsymmetrical and

somewhat oblique or abruptly narrowed and cuneate at base, divided into

numerous short acute lateral lobes, sharply and doubly serrate with

straight glandular teeth, glandular-viscid as they unfold, at maturity

membranaceous, yellow-green on the upper surface, pale and very lustrous

on the lower surface, glabrous, or villose along the under side of the

stout midrib with short brown hairs also forming tufts in the axils of

the numerous slender primary veins, 3′—6′ long, 1½′—4′ wide; petioles

stout, grooved, abruptly enlarged at the base, ½′—¾′ in length; stipules

oblong to spatulate, rounded and apiculate at apex, puberulous, about ¼′

long. Flowers: staminate aments sessile, in pairs in the axils of the

upper leaves sometimes reduced to small bracts, and single in the axil

of the leaf next below, during the winter about ½′ long and ⅛′ thick,

with dark red-brown shining puberulous apiculate scales, becoming when

the flowers open from spring to midsummer 4′ or 5′ long, with a

puberulous light red rachis and ovate acute apiculate 3-flowered scales;

calyx-lobes rounded, shorter than the 4 stamens; pistillate aments in

elongated panicles, inclosed during winter in buds formed the previous

summer in the axils of the leaves of short lateral branchlets,

long-pedunculate, ⅓′ long, ⅙′ thick. Fruit: strobiles on slender

peduncles in elongated sometimes leafy panicles 4′—6′ in length, oblong,

½′—⅝′ long, about ⅓′ thick, their truncate scales thickened at the apex;

nut oval, about as wide as its wings.

A tree, sometimes 40° high, with a trunk 7′—8′ in diameter, short small

nearly horizontal branches forming a narrow crown, and slender slightly

zigzag branchlets puberulous and very glandular when they first appear,

bright orange-brown and lustrous and marked by numerous large pale

lenticels during their first season, much roughened during their second

year by the elevated crowded leaf-scars, becoming light gray.

Winter-buds acuminate, dark purple, covered especially toward the apex

with close fine pubescence, about ½′ long. Bark thin bluish gray, with

bright red inner bark; often a shrub only a few feet tall spreading into

broad thickets.

Distribution. Northwest coast from the borders of the Arctic Circle to

the high mountains of northern California; common in the valley of the

Yukon and eastward through British Columbia to Alberta, and through

Washington and Oregon to the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains in

Montana; at the north with dwarf Willows, forming great thickets; in

southeastern Alaska often a tall tree on rich moist bottom-lands near

the mouths of mountain streams, and at the upper limits of tree growth a

low shrub; very abundant in the valley of the Yukon on the wet banks of

streams and often arborescent in habit; in British Columbia and the

United States generally smaller and a shrub, growing usually only at

altitudes of more than 3000° above the sea, and often forming thickets

on the banks of streams and lakes.

2. Alnus rubra Bong. Alder.

_Alnus oregona_ Nutt.

[Illustration: Fig. 210]

Leaves ovate to elliptic, acute, abruptly or gradually narrowed and

cuneate at base, crenately lobed, dentate with minute gland-tipped

teeth, and slightly revolute on the margins, covered when they unfold

with pale tomentum, at maturity thick dark green and glabrous or pilose

with scattered white hairs above, clothed below with short rusty

pubescence, 3′—5′ long, 1¾′—3′ wide, or on vigorous branchlets sometimes

8′—10′ long, with a broad midrib and primary veins green on the upper

side and orange-colored on the lower, the primary veins running

obliquely to the points of the lobes and connected by conspicuous

slightly reticulate cross veinlets; petioles orange-colored, nearly

terete, slightly grooved, ¼′—¾′ in length; stipules ovate, acute, pale

green flushed with red, tomentose, ⅛′—¼′ long. Flowers: staminate aments

in red-stemmed clusters, during the winter 1¼′ long, ⅛′ thick, with dark

red-brown lustrous closely appressed scales, becoming 4′—6′ long and ¼′

thick, with ovate acute orange-colored glabrous scales; calyx yellow,

with ovate rounded lobes rather shorter than the 4 stamens; pistillate

aments in short racemes usually inclosed during the winter in buds

formed during the early summer and opening in the early spring, ⅓′—½′

long, about 1/16′ thick, with dark red acute scales; styles bright red.

Fruit: strobiles raised on stout orange-colored peduncles sometimes ½′

in length, ovoid or oblong, ½′—1′ long, ⅓′—½′ thick, with truncate

scales much thickened toward the apex; nut orbicular to obovoid,

surrounded by a membranaceous wing.

A tree, usually 40°—50°, occasionally 90° high, with a trunk sometimes

3° in diameter, slender somewhat pendulous branches forming a narrow

pyramidal head, and slender branchlets marked by minute scattered pale

lenticels, light green and coated at first with hoary tomentum sometimes

persistent until their second year, becoming during the first winter

bright red and lustrous and ultimately ashy gray. Winter-buds about ⅓′

long, dark red, covered with pale scurfy pubescence. Bark rarely more

than ¾′ thick, close, roughened by minute wart-like excrescences, pale

gray or nearly white, with a thin outer layer, and bright red-brown

inner bark. Wood light, soft, brittle, not strong, close-grained, light

brown tinged with red, with thick nearly white sapwood; in Washington

and Oregon largely used in the manufacture of furniture and for smoking

salmon; by the Indians of Alaska the trunks are hollowed into canoes.

Distribution. Shores of Yakutat Bay, southeastern Alaska, southward near

the coast to the cañons of the Santa Inez Mountains, Santa Barbara

County, California; common along the banks of streams, and of its

largest size near the shores of Puget Sound; in California most abundant

in Mendocino, Humboldt and Marin Counties, forming groves on

bottom-lands near the coast; often ranging inland for 20 or 30 miles,

and occasionally ascending to altitudes of 2000° above the sea.

3. Alnus tenuifolia Nutt. Alder.

[Illustration: Fig. 211]

Leaves ovate-oblong, acute or acuminate, broad and rounded or cordate or

occasionally abruptly narrowed and cuneate at base, usually acutely

laciniately lobed and doubly serrate, when they unfold light green often

tinged with red, pilose on the upper surface and coated on the lower

with pale tomentum, at maturity thin and firm, dark green and glabrous

above, pale yellow-green and glabrous or puberulous below, 2′—4′ long,

1½′—2½′ wide, with a stout orange-colored midrib impressed on the upper

side, and slender primary veins running to the points of the lobes;

petioles stout, slightly grooved, orange-colored, ½′—1′ in length;

stipules ovate, acute, thin, and scarious, ½′ long, about ⅛′ wide,

covered with pale pubescence. Flowers: staminate aments 3 or 4 in number

in slender-stemmed racemes, nearly sessile or raised on stout peduncles

often ½′ long, during the winter light purple, ¾′—1′ long and ¼′ thick,

becoming 1½′—2′ in length; calyx-lobes rounded, shorter than the 4

stamens; pistillate aments naked during the winter, dark red-brown,

nearly ¼′ long, with acute apiculate loosely imbricated scales, only

slightly enlarged when the flowers open. Fruit: strobiles

obovoid-oblong, ⅓′—½′ long, their scales much thickened, truncate and

3-lobed at apex; nut nearly circular to slightly obovoid, surrounded by

a thin membranaceous border.

A tree, occasionally 30° tall, with a trunk 6′—8′ in diameter, small

spreading slightly pendulous branches forming a narrow round-topped

head, and slender branchlets marked at first by a few large

orange-colored lenticels and coated with fine pale or rusty caducous

pubescence, becoming light brown or ashy gray more or less deeply

flushed with red in their first winter and ultimately paler; more often

shrubby, with several spreading stems, and at the north and at high

altitudes frequently only 4°—5° tall. Winter-buds ¼′—⅓′ long, bright

red, and puberulous. Bark rarely more than ¼′ thick, bright red-brown

and broken on the surface into small closely appressed scales.

Distribution. Banks of streams and mountain cañons from Francis Lake in

latitude 61° north to the valley of the lower Fraser River, British

Columbia, eastward along the Saskatchewan to Prince Albert, and

southward through the Rocky Mountains to northern New Mexico; on the

Sierra Nevada of southern California, and in Lower California; the

common Alder of mountain streams in the northern interior region of the

continent; very abundant on the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains,

and on the southern California Sierras; forming great thickets at

6000°—7000° above the sea along the headwaters of the rivers of southern

California flowing to the Pacific Ocean; the common Alder of eastern

Washington and Oregon, and of Idaho and Montana; very abundant and of

its largest size in Colorado and northern New Mexico.

4. Alnus rhombifolia Nutt. White Alder. Alder.

[Illustration: Fig. 212]

Leaves ovate or oval or sometimes nearly orbicular, rounded or acute at

apex, especially on vigorous shoots, gradually or abruptly narrowed and

cuneate at base, finely or sometimes coarsely and occasionally doubly

serrate, slightly thickened and reflexed on the somewhat undulate

margins, when they unfold pale green and covered with deciduous matted

white hairs, at maturity dark green and lustrous on the upper surface,

frequently marked, especially on the midrib, with minute glandular dots,

light yellow-green and slightly puberulous below, 2′—3′ long, 1½′—2′

wide, with a stout yellow midrib and primary veins; petioles slender,

yellow, hairy, flattened and grooved on the upper side, ½′—¾′ long;

stipules ovate, acute, scarious, puberulous, about ¼′ in length.

Flowers: staminate aments in slender-stemmed pubescent clusters, usually

short-stalked, during the summer dark olive-brown and lustrous, ¾′—1′

long and about 1/16′ thick, beginning to lengthen late in the autumn

before the leaves fall, fully grown and 4′—6′ long and ¼′ thick in

January, with dark orange-brown scales, and deciduous in February before

the appearance of the new leaves; calyx yellow, 4-lobed, rather shorter

than the 2 or occasionally 3 or rarely single stamen; pistillate aments

in short pubescent racemes emerging from the bud in December, their

scales broadly ovate and rounded. Fruit: strobiles oblong, ⅓′—½′ long,

with thin scales slightly thickened and lobed at apex, fully grown at

midsummer, remaining closed until the trees flower the following year;

nut broadly ovoid, with a thin margin.

A tree, frequently 70°—80° high, with a tall straight trunk 2°—3° in

diameter, long slender branches pendulous at the ends, forming a wide

round-topped open head, and slender branchlets marked by small scattered

lenticels, at first light green and coated with pale caducous

pubescence, soon becoming dark orange-red and glabrous, and darker

during the winter and following summer. Winter-buds nearly ½′ long, very

slender, dark red, and covered with pale scurfy pubescence. Bark on old

trunks 1′ thick, dark brown, irregularly divided into flat often

connected ridges broken into oblong plates covered with small closely

appressed scales. Wood light, soft, not strong, brittle, close-grained,

light brown, with thick lighter colored often nearly white sapwood.

Distribution. Banks of streams from northern Idaho to the eastern slope

of the Cascade Mountains of Washington and southeastern Oregon, and

southward from the valley of the Willamette River, Oregon (near Salem,

Marion County, _J. C. Nelson_) over the coast ranges and along the

western slopes of the Sierra Nevada to the mountains of southern

California (San Bernardino, San Jacinto, and Cuyamaca Ranges); the

common Alder of the valleys of central California, occasionally

ascending on the southern Sierra Nevada to altitudes of 8000°, and the

only species at low altitudes in the southern part of the state.

5. Alnus oblongifolia Torr. Alder.

_Alnus acuminata_ Sarg., not H. B. K.

[Illustration: Fig. 213]

Leaves oblong-lanceolate, acute; or rarely obovate and rounded at apex,

gradually narrowed and cuneate at base, sharply and usually doubly

serrate, more or less thickly covered, especially early in the season,

with black glands, dark yellow-green and glabrous or slightly puberulous

above, pale and glabrous or puberulous below, especially along the

slender yellow midrib and veins, with small tufts of rusty hairs in the

axils of the primary veins, 2′—3′ long, about 1½′ wide; petioles

slender, grooved, pubescent, ¾′ long; stipules ovate-lanceolate, brown

and scarious, about ¼′ in length. Flowers: staminate aments in short

stout-stemmed racemes, during the winter light yellow, ½′—¾′ long and

about 1/16′ thick, becoming when the flowers open at the end of February

before the appearance of the leaves 2′—2½′ in length, with ovate pointed

dark orange-brown scales; calyx 4-lobed; stamens 3 or occasionally 2,

with pale red anthers soon becoming light yellow; pistillate aments

naked during the winter, ⅛′ to nearly ¼′ long, with light brown ovate

rounded scales; stigmas bright red. Fruit: strobiles ½′—1′ long, with

thin scales slightly thickened and nearly truncate at apex; nut broadly

ovoid, with a narrow membranaceous border.

A tree, in the United States rarely more than 20°—30° high, with a trunk

sometimes 8′ in diameter, long slender spreading branches forming an

open round-topped head, and slender branchlets slightly puberulous when

they first appear, light orange-red and lustrous during their first

winter, and marked by small conspicuous pale lenticels, becoming in

their second year dark red-brown or gray tinged with red and much

roughened by the elevated leaf-scars. Winter-buds acute, red, lustrous,

glabrous, ½′ long. Bark thin, smooth, light brown tinged with red.

Distribution. Banks of streams in cañons of the mountains of southern

New Mexico and Arizona at altitudes of 4000°—6000° above the sea; in Oak

Creek Cañon near Flagstaff, northern Arizona (tree 100° × 3°, _P.

Lowell_); and on the mountains of northern Mexico.

6. Alnus maritima Nutt. Alder.

[Illustration: Fig. 214]

Leaves oblong-ovate, or obovate, acute, acuminate or rounded at apex,

gradually narrowed and cuneate at base, remotely serrate with minute

incurved glandular teeth, and somewhat thickened on the slightly

undulate margins, when they unfold, light green tinged with red, hairy

on the midrib, veins, and petioles, and coated above with pale scurfy

pubescence, at maturity dark green, very lustrous, and covered below by

minute pale glandular dots, 3′—4′ long, 1½′—2′ wide, with a stout yellow

midrib and primary veins prominent and glandular on the upper side and

slightly puberulous below; petioles stout, yellow, glandular, flattened

and grooved on the upper side, ½′—¾′ in length; stipules oblong, acute,

about ⅛′ long, dark reddish brown, caducous. Flowers opening in the

autumn: aments appearing in July on branches of the year and fully grown

in August or early in September; staminate in short scurfy-pubescent

glandular-pitted racemes on slender peduncles sometimes 1′ in length

from the axils of upper leaves, covered at first with ovate acute dark

green very lustrous scales slightly ciliate on the margins and furnished

at apex with minute red points, at maturity 1½′—2½′ long, ¼′ to nearly

½′ thick, with dark orange-brown scales raised on slender stalks, and 4

bright orange-colored stamens; pistillate usually solitary from the

axils of the lower leaves on stout pubescent peduncles, bright red at

apex and light green below before opening, with ovate acute scales

slightly ciliate on the margins, about ⅛′ long when the styles protrude

from between the scales, beginning to enlarge the following spring.

Fruit attaining full size at midsummer and then raised on a stout

peduncle, broadly ovoid, rounded and depressed at base, gradually

narrowed to the rather obtuse apex, about ⅝′ long and ½′ broad, with

thin lustrous scales slightly thickened and crenately lobed at apex,

turning dark reddish brown or nearly black and opening late in the

autumn and remaining on the branches until after the flowers open the

following year; nut oblong-obovoid, gradually narrowed and apiculate at

apex, with a thin membranaceous border.

A tree, occasionally 30° high, with a tall straight trunk 4′—5′ in

diameter, small spreading branches forming a narrow round-topped head,

slender slightly zigzag branchlets, light green and hairy at first, pale

yellow-green, very lustrous, slightly puberulous, marked with occasional

small orange-colored lenticels, and glandular with minute dark glandular

dots during their first summer, becoming dull light orange or reddish

brown in the winter, and ashy gray often slightly tinged with red the

following season; more often shrubby, with numerous slender spreading

stems 15°—20° tall. Winter-buds acute, dark red, coated with pale

lustrous scurfy pubescence, about ¼′ long. Bark ⅛′ thick, smooth, light

brown or brown tinged with gray. Wood light, soft, close-grained, light

brown, with thick hardly distinguishable sapwood.

Distribution. Banks of streams and ponds in southern Delaware and

Maryland, and in south central Oklahoma (Johnson and Bryan Counties).

Occasionally cultivated as an ornamental tree in the eastern states and

hardy as far north as Massachusetts.

X. FAGACEÆ.

Trees, with watery juice, slender terete branchlets marked by numerous

usually pale lenticels, alternate stalked penniveined leaves, and narrow

mostly deciduous stipules. Flowers monœcious, the staminate in unisexual

heads or aments, composed of a 4—8-lobed calyx, and 4 or 8 stamens, with

free simple filaments and introrse 2-celled anthers, the cells parallel

and contiguous, opening longitudinally; the pistillate solitary or

clustered, in terminal unisexual or bisexual spikes or heads, subtended

by an involucre of imbricated bracts becoming woody and partly or

entirely inclosing the fruit, and composed of a 4—8-lobed calyx adnate

to the 3—7-celled ovary with as many styles as its cells and 1 or 2

pendulous anatropous or semianatropous ovules in each cell. Fruit a nut

1-seeded by abortion, the outer coat cartilaginous, the inner

membranaceous or bony. Seed filling the cavity of the nut, without

albumen; seed-coat membranaceous; cotyledons fleshy, including the

minute superior radicle; hilum, basal, minute.

The six genera of this widely distributed family occur in North America

with the exception of Nothofagus, separated from Fagus to receive the

Beech-trees of the southern hemisphere.

CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN GENERA.

Staminate flowers fascicled in globose-stalked heads; the pistillate

in 2—4-flowered clusters.

1. Fagus.

Staminate flowers in slender aments.

Pistillate flowers in 2—5-flowered clusters below the staminate, in

bisexual aments.

Nut inclosed in a prickly burr.

Leaves deciduous; ovary 6-celled; nut maturing in one season;

branchlets lengthening by an upper axillary bud;

bud-scales 4.

2. Castanea.

Leaves persistent; ovary 3-celled; nut maturing at the end of

the second season; branchlets lengthening by a terminal

bud; bud-scales numerous.

3. Castanopsis.

Nut inclosed only partly in a shallow cup covered by slender

recurved scales united only at the base, free above.

4. Lithocarpus.

Pistillate flowers solitary, in few-flowered unisexual spikes; nut

more or less inclosed in a cup covered by thin or thickened

scales, closely appressed or often free toward its rim.

5. Quercus.

1. FAGUS L. Beech.

Trees, with smooth pale bark, hard close-grained wood, and elongated

acute bright chestnut-brown buds, their inner scales accrescent and

marking the base of the branchlets with persistent ring-like scars.

Leaves convex and plicate along the veins in the bud, thick and firm,

deciduous; petioles short, nearly terete, in falling leaving small

elevated semioval leaf-scars, with marginal rows of minute

fibro-vascular bundle-scars; stipules linear-lanceolate, infolding the

leaf in the bud. Flowers vernal after the unfolding of the leaves;

staminate short-pedicellate, in globose many-flowered heads on long

drooping bibracteolate stems at base of shoots of the year or from the

axils of their lowest leaves, and composed of a subcampanulate 4—8-lobed

calyx, the lobes imbricated in æstivation, ovate and rounded, and 8—16

stamens inserted on the base of and longer than the calyx, with slender

filaments and oblong green anthers; pistillate in 2—4-flowered stalked

clusters in the axils of upper leaves of the year, surrounded by

numerous awl-shaped hairy bracts, the outer bright red, longer than the

flowers, deciduous, the inner shorter and united below into a 4-lobed

involucre becoming at maturity woody, ovoid, thick-walled, and covered

by stout recurved prickles, inclosing or partly inclosing the usually 3

nuts, and ultimately separating into 4 valves; calyx urn-shaped,

villose, divided into 4 or 5 linear-lanceolate acute lobes, its 3-angled

tube adnate to the 3-celled ovary surmounted by 3 slender recurved

pilose styles green and stigmatic toward the apex and longer than the

involucre; ovules 2 in each cell. Nut ovoid, unequally 3-angled, acute

or winged at the angles, concave and longitudinally ridged on the sides,

chestnut-brown and lustrous, tipped with the remnants of the styles,

marked at the base by a small triangular scar, with a thin shell covered

on the inner surface with rufous tomentum. Seed dark chestnut-brown,

suspended with the abortive ovules from the tip of the hairy dissepiment

of the ovary pushed by the growth of the seed into one of the angles of

the nut; cotyledons sweet, oily, plano-convex.

Fagus as here limited is confined to the northern hemisphere, with a

single American species and seven Old World species; of these one is

widely distributed through Europe, another is found in the Caucasus, and

the others are confined to eastern temperate Asia. Of exotic species,

the European _Fagus sylvatica_ L., an important timber-tree, is

frequently planted for ornament in the eastern states in several of its

forms, especially those with purple leaves, and with pendulous branches.

The wood of Fagus is hard and close-grained. The sweet seeds are a

favorite food of swine, and yield a valuable oil.

_Fagus_ is the classical name of the Beech-tree.

1. Fagus grandifolia Ehrh. Beech.

_Fagus americana_ Sweet.

[Illustration: Fig. 215]

Leaves remote at the ends of the branches and clustered on short lateral

branchlets, oblong-ovate, acuminate with a long slender point, coarsely

serrate with spreading or incurved triangular teeth except at the

gradually narrowed generally cuneate base, when they unfold pale green

and clothed on the lower surface and margins with long pale lustrous

silky hairs, at maturity dull dark bluish green above, light

yellow-green, very lustrous, and glabrous or rarely pilose below (f.

_pubescens_ Fern. & Rehd.) with tufts of long pale hairs in the axils of

the veins, 2½′—5′ long, 1′—3′ wide, with a slender yellow midrib covered

above with short pale hairs, and slender primary veins running obliquely

to the points of the teeth; turning bright clear yellow in the autumn;

very rarely deeply laciniate; petioles hairy, ¼′—½′ length; stipules

ovate-lanceolate on the lower leaves, strap-shaped to linear-lanceolate

on the upper, brown or often red below the middle, membranaceous,

lustrous, 1′—1½′ long. Flowers opening when the leaves are about one

third grown; staminate in globose heads 1′ in diameter, on slender hairy

peduncles about 2′ long; pistillate in usually 2-flowered clusters, on

short clavate hoary peduncles ½′—¾′ long. Fruit: involucres ½′—¾′ in

length often shorter than the nuts, on stout hairy club-shaped peduncles

¼′—¾′ long, fully grown at midsummer, and then puberulous, dark

orange-green, and covered by long slender recurved prickles red above

the middle, becoming at maturity in the autumn light brown and

tomentose, with crowded much recurved pubescent prickles, persistent on

the branch after opening late into the winter; nut about ¾′ long.

A tree, usually 70°—80° but exceptionally 120° high, sending up from the

roots numerous small stems sometimes extending into broad thickets round

the parent tree, in the forest with a long comparatively slender stem

free of branches for more than half its length, and short branches

forming a narrow head, in open situations short-stemmed, with a trunk

often 3°—4° in diameter, and numerous limbs spreading gradually and

forming a broad compact round-topped head of slender slightly drooping

branches clothed with short leafy laterals, and branchlets pale green

and coated with long soft caducous hairs when they first appear,

olive-green or orange-colored during their first summer, and

conspicuously marked by oblong bright orange lenticels, gradually

growing red, bright reddish brown during their first winter, darker

brown in their second season and ultimately ashy gray. Winter-buds

puberulous, especially toward the apex, ¾′ to nearly 1′ long, about ⅛′

broad, the inner scales hirsute on the inner surface and along the

margins and when fully grown often 1′ long, lustrous, brown above the

middle, and reddish below. Bark ¼′—½′ thick, with a smooth light

steel-gray surface. Wood hard, strong, tough, very close-grained, not

durable, difficult to season, dark or often light red, with thin nearly

white sapwood of 20—30 layers of annual growth; largely used in the

manufacture of chairs, shoe-lasts, plane-stocks, the handles of tools,

and for fuel. The sweet nuts are gathered and sold in the markets of

Canada and of some of the western and middle states.

Distribution. Rich uplands and mountain slopes, often forming nearly

pure forests, and southward on the bottom-lands of streams and the

margins of swamps; valley of the Restigouche River, New Brunswick, to

the northern shores of Lake Huron and the southern shores of Lake

Superior, and southward to Virginia, Ohio, Michigan, the ravines of Rock

River near Oregon, Ogle County, Illinois, Minnesota and northern

Missouri; southward passing into the var. _caroliniana_ Fern. & Rehd.,

differing in its ovate to short-ovate thicker leaves, usually rounded or

subcordate at base, and often less coarsely serrate or undulate on the

margins, glabrous or rarely densely soft pubescent below (f. _mollis_

Fern. & Rehd.), in the often shorter involucre of the fruit with shorter

and less crowded prickles; usually on the bottom-lands of streams and

the borders of swamps, New Jersey, and southern Ohio and Missouri to

western Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, eastern Texas, and

northeastern Oklahoma; ascending on the southern Appalachian Mountains

to altitudes of 3000°; probably growing to its largest size in eastern

Louisiana.

The northern form is occasionally planted in the northern states as a

shade and park tree.

2. CASTANEA Adans. Chestnut.

Trees or shrubs, with furrowed bark, porous brittle wood, durable in the

ground, terete branchlets without terminal buds, axillary buds covered

by 2 pairs of slightly imbricated scales, the outer lateral, the others

accrescent, becoming oblong-ovate and acute and marking the base of the

branch with narrow ring-like scars, and stout perpendicular tap-roots;

producing when cut numerous stout shoots from the stump. Leaves

convolute in the bud, ovate, acute, coarsely serrate, except at the

base, with thin veins running to the points of the slender glandular

teeth, deciduous; petioles leaving in falling small elevated semioval

leaf-scars marked by an irregular marginal row of minute fibro-vascular

bundle-scars; stipules ovate to linear-lanceolate, acute, scarious,

infolding the leaf in the bud, caducous. Flowers opening in early

summer, unisexual, strong-smelling; the staminate, in 3—7-flowered

cymes, in the axils of minute ovate bracts, in elongated simple

deciduous aments first appearing with the unfolding of the leaves from

the inner scales of the terminal bud and from the axils of the lower

leaves of the year, composed of a pale straw-colored slightly puberulous

calyx deeply divided into 6 ovate rounded segments imbricated in the

bud, and 10—20 stamens inserted on the slightly thickened torus, with

filiform filaments incurved in the bud, becoming elongated and exserted,

and ovoid or globose pale yellow anthers; the pistillate scattered or

spicate at the base of the shorter persistent androgynous aments from

the axils of later leaves, sessile, 2 or 3 together or solitary within a

short-stemmed or sessile involucre of closely imbricated oblong acute

bright green bracts scurfy-pubescent or tomentose below the middle,

subtended by a bract and 2 lateral bractlets, each flower composed of an

urn-shaped calyx, with a short limb divided into 6 obtuse lobes, minute

sterile stamens shorter than the calyx-lobes, an ovary 6-celled after

fecundation, with 6 linear spreading white styles hairy below the middle

and tipped by minute acute stigmas, and 2 ovules in each cell, attached

on its inner angle, descending, semianatropous. Fruit maturing in one

season, its involucre inclosing 1—3 nuts, globose or short-oblong,

pubescent or tomentose and spiny on the outer surface, with elongated

ridged bright green ultimately brown branched spines fascicled between

the deciduous scales, coated on the inner surface with lustrous

pubescence, splitting at maturity into 2—4 valves; nut ovoid, acute,

crowned by the remnants of the style, bright chestnut-brown and

lustrous, tomentose or pubescent at apex, cylindrical, or when more than

1 flattened, marked at the broad base by a large conspicuous pale

circular or oval thickened scar, its shell lined with rufous or hoary

tomentum. Seed usually solitary by abortion, dark chestnut-brown, marked

at apex by the abortive ovules, with thick and fleshy more or less

undulate ruminate sweet farinaceous cotyledons.

Castanea is confined to the northern hemisphere, and is widely

distributed through eastern North America, southern Europe, northern

Africa, southwestern Asia, and central and northern China, Korea, and

Japan. Seven species are distinguished. In the countries of the

Mediterranean Basin much attention has been given to improving the fruit

of the native species _Castanea sativa_ Mill., which is occasionally

planted in the middle United States; in Japan the seeds of _Castanea

crenata_ S. & Zucc. in many varieties and in China those of _Castanea

mollissima_ Bl. are important articles of food. Castanea produces

coarse-grained wood very durable in contact with the soil, and rich in

tannin. Chestnut-trees suffer in the eastern United States from the

attacks of a fungus, _Endothia parasitica_ Anders. which has nearly

exterminated them in many parts of the country.

_Castanea_ is the classical name of the Chestnut-tree.

CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES.

Involucre of the fruit containing 2 or 3 flattened nuts.

1. C. dentata (A, C).

Involucre of the fruit containing a single terete nut.

Involucre of the fruit densely covered with spines; branchlets hoary

tomentose.

2. C. pumila (A, C).

Involucre of the fruit covered with scattered spines; branchlets

glabrous or sparingly pilose.

3. C. alnifolia (C).

1. Castanea dentata Borkh. Chestnut.

[Illustration: Fig. 216]

Leaves oblong-lanceolate, acute and long-pointed at apex, gradually

narrowed and cuneate at base, when they unfold puberulous on the upper

surface and clothed on the lower with fine cobweb-like tomentum, at

maturity thin, glabrous, dark dull yellow-green above, pale yellow-green

below, 6′—8′ long, about 2′ wide, with a pale yellow midrib and primary

veins; turning bright clear yellow late in the autumn; petioles stout,

slightly angled, puberulous, ½′ long, often flushed with red; stipules

ovate-lanceolate, acute, yellow-green, puberulous, about ½′ long.

Flowers: staminate aments about ½′ long when they first appear, green

below the middle and red above, becoming when fully grown 6′—8′ long,

with stout green puberulous stems covered from base to apex with crowded

flower-clusters; androgynous aments, slender, puberulous, 2½′—5′ long,

with 2 or 3 irregularly scattered involucres of pistillate flowers near

their base. Fruit: involucre attaining its full size by the middle of

August, 2′—2½′ in diameter, sometimes a little longer than broad,

somewhat flattened at apex, pubescent and covered on the outer surface

with crowded fascicles of long slender glabrous much-branched spines,

opening with the first frost and gradually shedding their nuts; nuts

usually much compressed, ½′—1′ wide, usually rather broader than long,

coated at apex or nearly to the middle with thick pale tomentum, the

interior of the shell lined with thick rufous tomentum; seed very sweet.

A tree, occasionally 100° high, with a tall straight columnar trunk

3°—4° in diameter, or often when uncrowded by other trees with a short

trunk occasionally 10°—12° in diameter, and usually divided not far

above the ground into 3 or 4 stout horizontal limbs forming a broad low

round-topped head of slightly pendulous branches frequently 100° across,

and branchlets at first light yellow-green sometimes tinged with red,

somewhat angled, lustrous, slightly puberulous, soon becoming glabrous

and olive-green tinged with yellow or brown tinged with green and

ultimately dark brown. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, about ¼′ long, with

thin dark chestnut-brown scales scarious on the margins. Bark from 1′—2′

thick, dark brown and divided by shallow irregular often interrupted

fissures into broad flat ridges separating on the surface into small

thin closely appressed scales. Wood light, soft, not strong, liable to

check and warp in drying, easily split, reddish brown, with thin lighter

colored sapwood of 3 or 4 layers of annual growth; largely used in the

manufacture of cheap furniture and in the interior finish of houses, for

railway-ties, fence-posts, and rails. The nuts, which are superior to

those of the Old World chestnuts in sweetness were formerly gathered in

great quantities in the forest and sold in the markets of the eastern

cities.

Distribution. Southern Maine to Woodstock, Grafton County, New Hampshire

(rare) and to the valley of the Winooski River, Vermont, southern

Ontario, and southern Michigan, southward to Delaware and Ohio, southern

Indiana, and southwestern Illinois (Pulaski County) along the

Appalachian Mountains up to altitudes of 4000° to northern Georgia, and

to western Florida (Crestview, Walton County) southeastern (Henry and

Dale Counties) and south central (Dallas County) Alabama, Northern,

central and southeastern Mississippi (Pearl River County), and to

central Kentucky and Tennessee; very common on the glacial drift of the

northern states and, except at the north, mostly confined to the

Appalachian hills; attaining its greatest size in western North Carolina

and eastern Tennessee.

Formerly sometimes planted in the eastern states as an ornamental and

timber tree, and for its nuts, of which several varieties have been

recognized.

× _Castanea neglecta_ Dode with leaves intermediate between those of _C.

dentata_ and _C. pumila_ and an involucre containing a single large nut

occurs on the Blue Ridge near Highlands, Macon County, North Carolina.

2. Castanea pumila Mill. Chinquapin.

[Illustration: Fig. 217]

Leaves oblong-elliptic to oblong-obovate, acute, coarsely serrate, with

slender rigid spreading or incurved teeth, gradually narrowed and

usually unequal and rounded or cuneate at base, when they unfold tinged

with red and coated above with pale caducous tomentum and below with

thick snowy white tomentum, at maturity rather thick and firm in

texture, bright yellow-green on the upper surface, hoary or silvery

pubescent on the lower, 3′—5′ long, 1½′—2′ wide; turning dull yellow in

the autumn; petioles stout, pubescent, flattened on the upper side,

¼′—½′ long; stipules light yellow-green, pubescent, those of the 2

lowest leaves broad, ovate, acute, covered at apex by rufous tomentum,

on later leaves ovate-lanceolate, often oblique and acute, becoming

linear at the end of the branch. Flowers: staminate aments ½′ long when

they first appear, pubescent, green below, bright red at apex, becoming

when fully grown 4′—6′ long, with stout hoary tomentose stems and

crowded or scattered flower-clusters; androgynous aments silvery

tomentose, 3′—4′ long; involucres 1-flowered, scattered at the base of

the ament or often spicate and covering its lower half, sessile or

short-stalked. _Fruit_: involucre 1′—1½′ in diameter, with thin walls

covered with crowded fascicles of slender spines tomentose toward the

base; nut ovoid, terete, rounded at the slightly narrowed base,

gradually narrowed and pointed at apex, more or less coated with silvery

white pubescence, dark chestnut-brown, very lustrous, ¾′—1′ long, ⅓′

thick, with a thin shell lined with a coat of lustrous hoary tomentum,

and a sweet seed.