Part 63

1. B. cylindrica, Willd. Perennial, smoothish or pubescent and more or less scabrous; stem (1--3 deg. high) simple; leaves chiefly opposite (rarely all alternate), ovate to ovate- or oblong-lanceolate, pointed, serrate, 3-nerved; stipules distinct; petioles short or elongated; flowers dioecious, or the two kinds intermixed, the small clusters densely aggregated in simple and elongated axillary spikes, the sterile interrupted, the fertile often continuous, frequently leaf-bearing at the apex.--Moist or shady ground, common. Very variable.

12. PARIETARIA, Tourn. PELLITORY.

Flowers monoeciously polygamous; the staminate, pistillate, and perfect intermixed in the same involucrate-bracted cymose axillary clusters; the sterile much as in the last; the fertile with a tubular or bell-shaped 4-lobed and nerved calyx, enclosing the ovary and the ovoid achene. Style slender or none; stigma pencil-tufted.--Homely, diffuse or tufted herbs, not stinging, with alternate entire 3-ribbed leaves, and no stipules. (The ancient Latin name, because growing on old walls.)

1. P. Pennsylvanica, Muhl. Low, annual, simple or sparingly branched, minutely downy; leaves oblong-lanceolate, thin, veiny, roughish with opaque dots; flowers shorter than the involucre; stigma sessile.--Shaded rocky banks, E. Mass. and Vt. to Minn., and southward. June--Aug.

ORDER 100. PLATANACEAE. (PLANE-TREE FAMILY.)

_Trees, with watery juice, alternate palmately-lobed leaves, sheathing stipules, and monoecious flowers in separate and naked spherical heads, destitute of calyx or corolla; the fruit merely club-shaped 1-seeded nutlets, furnished with a ring of bristly hairs about the base_; consists only of the following genus (of uncertain relationship).

1. PLATANUS, L. SYCAMORE. BUTTONWOOD.

Sterile flowers of numerous stamens, with club-shaped little scales intermixed, filaments very short. Fertile flowers in separate catkins, consisting of inversely pyramidal ovaries mixed with little scales. Style rather lateral, awl-shaped or thread-like, simple. Nutlets coriaceous, small, tawny-hairy below, containing a single orthotropous pendulous seed. Embryo in the axis of thin albumen.--Large trees, with the bark deciduous in broad thin brittle plates; dilated base of the petiole enclosing the bud of the next season. (The ancient name, from [Greek: platy/s], _broad_.)

1. P. occidentalis, L. Leaves mostly truncate at base, angularly sinuate-lobed or toothed, the short lobes sharp-pointed; fertile heads solitary, hanging on a long peduncle.--Alluvial banks, S. Maine to N. Vt., Ont., S. E. Minn., E. Kan., and southward. Our largest tree, often 90--130 deg. high, with a trunk 6--14 deg. in diameter.

ORDER 101. JUGLANDACEAE. (WALNUT FAMILY.)

_Trees, with alternate pinnate leaves, and no stipules; flowers monoecious, the sterile in catkins (aments) with an irregular calyx adnate to the bract; the fertile solitary or in a small cluster or spike, with a regular 3--5-lobed calyx adherent to the incompletely 2--4-celled but only 1-ovuled ovary. Fruit a kind of dry drupe, with a crustaceous or bony nut-shell, containing a large 4-lobed orthotropous seed._ Albumen none. Cotyledons fleshy and oily, sinuous or corrugated, 2-lobed; radicle short, superior. Petals sometimes present in the fertile flowers.--A small family of important trees, consisting chiefly of the two following genera.

1. JUGLANS, L. WALNUT.

Sterile flowers in long and simple lateral catkins from the wood of the preceding year; the calyx adherent to the entire bracts or scales, unequally 3--6-cleft. Stamens 12--40; filaments free, very short. Fertile flowers solitary or several together on a peduncle at the end of the branches, with a 4-toothed calyx, bearing 4 small petals at the sinuses. Styles 2, very short; stigmas 2, somewhat club-shaped and fringed. Fruit with a fibrous-fleshy indehiscent epicarp, and a mostly rough irregularly furrowed endocarp or nut-shell.--Trees, with strong-scented or resinous-aromatic bark, few-scaled or almost naked buds (3 or 4 superposed, and the uppermost far above the axil), odd-pinnate leaves of many serrate leaflets, and the embryo sweet and edible. Pith in plates. (Name contracted from _Jovis glans_, the nut of Jupiter.)

1. J. cinerea, L. (BUTTERNUT. WHITE WALNUT.) Leaflets 5--8 pairs, oblong-lanceolate, pointed, rounded at base, downy, especially beneath, the _petioles and branchlets downy with clammy hairs; fruit oblong, clammy_, pointed, the nut deeply sculptured and rough with ragged ridges, 2-celled at the base.--Rich woods, N. Eng. to the mountains of Ga., west to Minn., E. Kan., and Ark. Tree 50--75 deg. high, with gray bark, widely spreading branches, and lighter brown wood than in the next.

2. J. nigra, L. (BLACK WALNUT.) Leaflets 7--11 pairs, ovate-lanceolate, taper-pointed, somewhat heart-shaped or unequal at base, smooth above, the lower surface and the _petioles minutely downy; fruit spherical_, roughly dotted, the nut corrugated, 4-celled at top and bottom.--Rich woods, W. Mass. and Conn. to Fla., west to Minn., E. Neb., E. Kan., and southward. A large and handsome tree (often 90--150 deg. high), with rough brown bark, and valuable purplish-brown wood turning blackish with age.

2. CARYA, Nutt. HICKORY.

Sterile flowers in slender lateral and clustered catkins; calyx naked, adherent to the bract, unequally 2--3-parted. Stamens 3--10; filaments short or none, free. Fertile flowers 2--5 in a cluster or short spike, on a peduncle terminating the shoot of the season; calyx 4-toothed; petals none. Stigmas sessile, 2 or 4, large, papillose, persistent. Fruit with a 4-valved, firm and at length dry exocarp (involucre), falling away from the smooth and crustaceous or bony endocarp or nut-shell, which is incompletely 2-celled, and at the base mostly 4-celled.--Fine timber-trees, with hard and very tough wood, and scaly buds, from which in spring are put forth usually both kinds of flowers, the sterile below and the fertile above the leaves. Nuts ripen and fall in October. ([Greek: Kary/a], an ancient name of the Walnut.)

Sec. 1. _Sterile catkins fascicled (no common peduncle or sometimes a very short one) from separate lateral scaly buds near the summit of shoots of the preceding year; bud-scales few; fruit elongated-oblong; the thin-shelled nut 2-celled below; seed sweet; leaflets short-stalked, numerous._

1. C. olivaeformis, Nutt. (PECAN-NUT.) Minutely downy, becoming nearly smooth; leaflets 13--15, oblong-lanceolate, tapering gradually to a slender point, falcate, serrate; nut olive-shaped.--River bottoms, S. Ind., S. Ill., and Iowa, to La. and Tex. A large tree (90--160 deg. high), with delicious nuts.

Sec. 2. _Sterile catkins in threes (rarely more) on a common peduncle from the axil of the inner scales of the common bud, therefore at the base of the shoot of the season, which, then bearing 3 or 4 leaves, is terminated by the fertile flowers; fruit globular or oval; nut 4-celled at base; leaflets sessile or nearly so._

[*] _Bud-scales numerous, about 10, successively enwrapping, the inner ones accrescent, becoming thin and membranaceous and rather tardily deciduous; husk of the fruit splitting promptly into 4 more or less thick and when dry hard or woody valves; seed sweet and delicious._ (The _hickory nuts_ of the market.)

2. C. alba, Nutt. (SHELL-BARK or SHAG-BARK HICKORY.) Bark of trunk shaggy, exfoliating in rough strips or plates; inner bud-scales becoming large and conspicuous, persistent till the flowers are fully developed; _leaflets 5--7_, when young minutely downy beneath, finely serrate, the three upper obovate-lanceolate, the _lower pair much smaller_ and oblong-lanceolate, all taper-pointed; fruit globular or depressed; _nut white_, flattish-globular, barely mucronate, the shell thinnish.--N. Eng. to N. shore of L. Erie and S. E. Minn., south to Fla., E. Kan., and Tex. Large and handsome tree (70--90 deg. high, or more), of great economic value. The principal hickory-nut of the markets.

3. C. sulcata, Nutt. (BIG SHELL-BARK. KING-NUT.) Bark, etc., as in n. 1; _leaflets 7--9_, more downy beneath; _fruit oval or ovate_, 4-ribbed above the middle, the husk very thick; _nut large_ (11/4--2' long) and usually angular, _dull white or yellowish, thick-walled, usually strongly pointed at both ends_.--Central N. Y. and Penn. to S. Ind., E. Kan., and Ind. Terr. Tree 70--90 deg. high, or more, in rich soil of bottom lands.

4. C. tomentosa, Nutt. (MOCKER-NUT. WHITE-HEART HICKORY.) _Bark close_, rough, but not shaggy and exfoliating on old trunks; catkins, shoots, and lower surface of the leaves _tomentose_ when young, resinous scented; _leaflets_ 7--9, lance-obovate or the lower oblong-lanceolate, pointed; _fruit globular or ovoid_, with a very thick and hard husk; _nut globular, not compressed, 4-ridged toward the slightly pointed summit, brownish_, very thick-shelled, 1' in diameter or smaller.--N. Eng. to N. shore of L. Erie, E. Neb., and south to the Gulf. Tree 70--100 deg. high, usually on rich upland hillsides.

5. C. microcarpa, Nutt. With rough close bark, small ovate buds, and the glabrous foliage, etc., of n. 6; fruit small, subglobose, with rather thin husk; nut thin-shelled, not angled.--N. Y. to Del., west to Mich. and Ill.

[*][*] _Bud-scales numerous or few; husk of the fruit thin and rather friable at maturity, 4-valved only to the middle or tardily to near the base; seed more or less bitter; bark of old trunk not exfoliating._

6. C. porcina, Nutt. (PIG-NUT or BROOM H.) Bud-scales nearly as in n. 4, but smaller, caducous; shoots, catkins, and leaves _glabrous_ or nearly so; _leaflets_ 5--7, oblong- or obovate-lanceolate and taper-pointed, serrate; fruit pear-shaped, oblong, or oval; _nut oblong or oval_ (11/2--2' long), with a _thick bony shell_; the oily seed at first sweet in taste, then bitterish.--S. Maine to Fla., west to Minn., E. Neb., and Tex. Tree 70--90 deg. high (rarely 120 deg.), on dry hills and uplands.

7. C. amara, Nutt. (BITTER-NUT or SWAMP H.) Scales of the small yellowish buds about 6, valvate in pairs, caducous in leafing; catkins and young herbage more or less pubescent, soon becoming almost glabrous; _leaflets_ 7--11, _lanceolate_ or oblong-lanceolate; fruit globular, narrowly 6-ridged; _nut globular, short-pointed_, white (barely 1' long), _thin-walled_; seed at first sweet-tasted, soon extremely bitter.--Moist soil, N. Eng. to Fla., west to Minn., E. Neb., and Tex. Tree 50--75 deg. high; husk and nut-shell thinner and less hard than in other species.

ORDER 102. MYRICACEAE. (SWEET-GALE FAMILY.)

_Monoecious or dioecious shrubs, with both kinds of flowers in short scaly catkins, and resinous-dotted often fragrant leaves_,--differing from the Birches chiefly in the 1-celled ovary with a single erect orthotropous ovule, and the drupe-like nut. Involucre and perianth none.

1. MYRICA, L. BAYBERRY. WAX-MYRTLE.

The only genus.--Flowers solitary under a scale-like bract and with a pair of bractlets, the sterile in oblong or cylindrical, the fertile in ovoid or globular catkins, from axillary scaly buds; stamens 2--8; filaments somewhat united below; anthers 2-celled. Ovary with 2--8 scales at its base, and 2 thread-like stigmas. Fruit a small globular or oblong nut, or dry drupe, coated with resinous grains or wax. ([Greek: Myri/ke], the ancient name of the Tamarisk or some other shrub; perhaps from [Greek: myri/zo], _to perfume_.)

[*] _Mostly dioecious; fertile catkins ovoid; ovary with 2--4 scales at base; nut globular; leaves entire or somewhat serrate._

1. M. Gale, L. (SWEET GALE.) Shrub 3--5 deg. high; _leaves wedge-lanceolate_, serrate toward the apex, _pale, later than the flowers; sterile catkins closely clustered_; nuts in imbricated heads, 2-winged by the two thick ovate scales which coalesce with its base.--Wet borders of ponds, Newf. to N. Eng. and along the Great Lakes to Minn., south in the mountains to Va.

2. M. cerifera, L. (BAYBERRY. WAX-MYRTLE.) _Leaves oblong-lanceolate_, narrowed at the base, entire or wavy-toothed toward the apex, _shining and resinous-dotted both sides, somewhat preceding the flowers, fragrant; sterile catkins scattered_, oblong; scales wedge-shaped at the base; nuts scattered and naked, bony, and incrusted with white wax.--Sandy soil near the coast, from Nova Scotia to Fla. and Ala.; also on L. Erie. Shrub 3--8 deg. high, but sometimes a tree 35 deg. high; fruit sometimes persistent for 2 or 3 years.

[*][*] _Frequently monoecious; fertile catkins globular; ovary surrounded by 8 long linear-awl-shaped persistent scales; nut ovoid-oblong; leaves pinnatifid with many rounded lobes._

3. M. asplenifolia, Endl. Shrub 1--2 deg. high, with sweet scented fern-like linear-lanceolate leaves; stipules half heart-shaped; scales of the sterile catkins kidney-heart-shaped, pointed. (Comptonia asplenifolia, _Ait._)--Sterile hills, N. Eng. to N. C., west to Minn. and Ind.

ORDER 103. CUPULIFERAE. (OAK FAMILY.)

_Monoecious trees or shrubs, with alternate simple straight-veined leaves, deciduous stipules, the sterile flowers in catkins (or capitate-clustered in the_ Beech), _the fertile solitary, clustered, spiked, or in scaly catkins, the 1-celled and 1-seeded nut with or without an involucre._ Ovary more or less 2--7-celled, with 1 or 2 pendulous anatropous ovules in each cell; but all the cells and ovules except one disappearing in the fruit. Seed with no albumen, filled with the embryo.

Tribe I. BETULEAE. Flowers in scaly catkins, 2 or 3 to each bract. Sterile catkins pendulous. Stamens 2--4, and calyx usually 2--4-parted. Fertile flowers with no calyx, and no involucre to the compressed and often winged small nut. Ovary 2-celled, 2-ovuled.

1. Betula. Stamens 2, bifid. Fertile scales thin, 3-lobed, deciduous with the nuts.

2. Alnus. Stamens 4. Fertile scales thick, entire, persisting after the nuts have fallen.

Tribe II. CORYLEAE. Sterile catkins pendulous, with no calyx; stamens 3 or more to each bract and more or less adnate to it, the filaments often forked (anthers 1-celled). Fertile flowers in a short ament or head, 2 to each bract, and each with one or more bractlets which form a foliaceous involucre to the nut. Ovary 2-celled, 2-ovuled.

[*] Bract of staminate flower furnished with a pair of bractlets inside; fertile flowers few.

3. Corylus. Involucre leafy-coriaceous, enclosing the large bony nut.

[*][*] Bract of staminate flower simple; fertile flowers in short catkins; nut small, achene-like.

4. Ostrya. Each ovary and nut included in a bladdery and closed bag.

5. Carpinus. Each nut subtended by an enlarged leafy bractlet.

Tribe III. QUERCINEAE. Sterile flowers with 4--7-lobed calyx and stamens indefinite (3--20). Fertile flowers 1 or few, enclosed in a cupule consisting of consolidated bracts, which becomes indurated (scaly or prickly) and surrounds or encloses the nut.

[*] Sterile flowers in slender catkins.

6. Quercus. Cupule 1-flowered, scaly and entire; nut hard and terete.

7. Castanea. Cupule 2--4-flowered, forming a prickly hard bur, 2--4-valved when ripe.

[*][*] Sterile flowers in a small head.

8. Fagus. Cupule 2-flowered, 4-valved, containing 2 sharply triangular nuts.

1. BETULA, Tourn. BIRCH.

Sterile flowers 3, and bractlets 2, to each shield-shaped scale or bract of the catkins, consisting each of a calyx of one scale bearing 4 short filaments with 1-celled anthers (or strictly of two 2-parted filaments, each division bearing an anther-cell). Fertile flowers 2 or 3 to each 3-lobed bract, without bractlets or calyx, each of a naked ovary, becoming a broadly winged and scale-like nutlet (or small samara) crowned with the two spreading stigmas.--Outer bark usually separable in sheets, that of the branchlets dotted. Twigs and leaves often spicy-aromatic. Foliage mostly thin and light. Buds sessile, scaly. Sterile catkins long and drooping, terminal and lateral, sessile, formed in summer, remaining naked through the succeeding winter, and expanding their golden flowers in early spring, with or preceding the leaves; fertile catkins oblong or cylindrical, peduncled, usually terminating very short 2-leaved early lateral branches of the season. (The ancient Latin name, of Celtic origin.)

[*] _Trees, with brown or yellow-gray bark, sweet-aromatic as well as the twigs, membranaceous and straight-veined Hornbeam-like leaves heart-shaped or rounded at base, on short petioles, and sessile very thick fruiting catkins; their scales about equally 3-cleft, rather persistent; wing of fruit not broader than the seed-bearing body._

1. B. lenta, L. (CHERRY B. SWEET or BLACK BIRCH.) _Bark_ of trunk _dark brown, close_ (outer layers scarcely laminate), very sweet-aromatic; leaves ovate or oblong-ovate from a more or less heart-shaped base, acuminate, sharply and finely doubly serrate all round, when mature shining or bright green above and glabrous except on the veins beneath; _fruiting catkins oblong-cylindrical_ (1--11/4' long), the scales with short and _divergent lobes_.--Rich woodlands, Newf. to N. Del., and south in the mountains, west to Minn., and S. Ind. Tree 50--75 deg. high, with reddish bronze-colored spray; wood rose-colored, fine-grained, valuable for cabinet-work.

2. B. lutea, Michx. f. (YELLOW or GRAY BIRCH.) _Bark_ of trunk _yellowish- or silvery-gray, detaching in very thin filmy layers_, within and the twigs much less aromatic; leaves (3--5' long) slightly or not at all heart-shaped and often narrowish toward the base, duller-green above and usually more downy on the veins beneath; fruiting catkins _oblong-ovoid_ (1' or less in length, 6--9'' thick), the thinner scales (5--6'' long) twice as large as in n. 1, and with narrower _barely spreading lobes_.--Rich moist woodlands, Canada and N. Eng. to Del., west to Minn.; also along high peaks to Tenn. and N. C. Often 60--90 deg. high at the north; wood whiter and less valuable.

[*][*] _Trees, with chalky-white bark separable in thin sheets, ovate or triangular leaves of firmer texture, on long slender petioles; fruiting catkins cylindrical, usually hanging on rather slender peduncles; their scales glabrous, with short diverging lobes, freely deciduous; wing of the fruit much broader than its body._

3. B. populifolia, Ait. (AMERICAN WHITE BIRCH. GRAY BIRCH.) Trunk usually ascending (15--30 deg. high); _leaves triangular_ (deltoid), _very taper-pointed_ (usually abruptly), truncate or nearly so at the broad base, _smooth and shining both sides_, except the resinous glands when young. (B. alba, var. populifolia, _Spach_.)--Poor sandy soils, N. Brunswick to Del., west to L. Ontario. Bark much less separable than the next; leaves on slender petioles, tremulous as those of the aspen.

4. B. papyrifera, Marshall. (PAPER or CANOE BIRCH. WHITE BIRCH.) _Leaves ovate, taper-pointed_, heart-shaped or abrupt (or rarely wedge-shaped) at base, _smooth and green above_, pale, glandular-dotted, and a little hairy on the veins beneath, sharply and unequally doubly serrate, 3--4 times the length of the petiole. (B. papyracea, _Ait._)--Rich woodlands and stream-banks, N. Eng. to N. Penn., N. Ill., and Minn., and far north and westward. Tree 50--75 deg. high, with bark freely splitting into paper-like layers.--Var. MINOR, Tuckerman, is a dwarf form of the alpine region of the White Mts.

[*][*][*] _Tree, with greenish-brown bark, somewhat laminate, and reddish twigs, ovate leaves whitish beneath, and soft-downy peduncled fruiting catkins._

5. B. nigra, L. (RIVER or RED BIRCH.) Leaves rhombic-ovate, acutish at both ends, irregularly doubly serrate, whitish and (until old) downy underneath; petioles and peduncle of nearly the same length (3--7'') and with the oblong catkin tomentose; the bracts with oblong linear nearly equal lobes; fruit broadly winged.--Banks of streams, Mass, to Fla., west to Minn., E. Kan., and Tex. Tree 50--75 deg. high, with light-colored wood and somewhat Alder-like leaves.

[*][*][*][*] _Shrubs, with brownish bark, rounded or wedge-shaped crenate and mostly small leaves of thickish or coriaceous texture, and oblong or cylindrical glabrous and mostly erect catkins, on short peduncles._

6. B. pumila, L. (LOW BIRCH.) Stems (2--8 deg. high) erect or ascending, _not glandular_; young branches and lower face of young leaves mostly _soft-downy; leaves_ obovate, roundish, or orbicular (6--16'' long), _pale beneath, veinlets on both faces finely reticulated_; wing of the fruit mostly narrower than the body.--Bogs, W. Conn, and N. J. to Ind. and Minn., and northward throughout Canada. Leaves usually not at all resiniferous or glandular-dotted.

7. B. glandulosa, Michx. (DWARF BIRCH.) Stems erect or mostly spreading (1--4 deg. high), or when alpine procumbent; _branchlets glabrous, conspicuously dotted with resinous wart-like glands_; leaves roundish wedge-obovate or sometimes orbicular (6--9'' long), green and glabrous both sides, less reticulated; fruiting catkins mostly shorter and oblong or oval; wing of the fruit narrower than or sometimes equalling the body.--High mountains of N. Eng. and N. Y., to L. Superior, and far northward.

2. ALNUS, Tourn. ALDER.

Sterile catkins elongated and drooping, with 4 or 5 bractlets and 3 (rarely 6) flowers upon each short-stalked shield-shaped scale; each flower usually with a 3--5-parted calyx and as many stamens; filaments short and simple; anthers 2-celled. Fertile catkins ovoid or oblong; the fleshy scales each 2--3-flowered, with a calyx of 4 little scales adherent to the scales or bracts of the catkin, which are thick and woody in fruit, wedge-obovate, truncate, or 3--5-lobed, and persistent.--Shrubs or small trees, with few-scaled leaf-buds, and solitary or often racemose-clustered catkins, terminating leafless branchlets or peduncles. (The ancient Latin name.)

Sec. 1. _Flowers developed in spring with the leaves; the sterile from catkins which have remained naked over winter; while the fertile have been enclosed in a scaly bud; fruit with a conspicuous thin wing, as in_ Birch.

1. A. viridis, DC. (GREEN or MOUNTAIN ALDER.) Shrub 3--8 deg. high; leaves round-oval, ovate, or slightly heart-shaped, glutinous and smooth or softly downy beneath, irregularly serrulate or biserrulate with very sharp and closely set teeth, sometimes sinuate-toothed and serrulate (var. SINUATA, Regel), on young shoots often cut-toothed; fertile catkins slender-stalked, clustered, ovoid (6--8'' long).--On mountains and mountain streams, Newf. to W. Mass., N. Y., L. Superior, and far north and west; also in the Alleghanies to N. C. (Eu., Asia.)

Sec. 2. _Flowers developed in earliest spring, before the leaves, from mostly clustered catkins which (of both sorts) were formed the foregoing summer and have remained naked over winter; fruit wingless or with a narrow coriaceous margin._

2. A. incana, Willd. (SPECKLED or HOARY A.) _Leaves broadly oval or ovate, rounded at base_, sharply and often doubly serrate, _whitened and mostly downy beneath_; stipules oblong-lanceolate; fruit orbicular.--Borders of streams and swamps, Newf. to Mass., E. Neb., Minn., and westward. Shrub or tree 8--20 deg. high; the common Alder northward. (Eu., Asia.)

3. A. serrulata, Willd. (SMOOTH A.) _Leaves obovate, acute at base_, sharply serrate with minute teeth, thickish, _green both sides_, smooth or often downy beneath; stipules oval; fruit ovate.--Borders of streams and swamps, Mass. to Fla., west to S. E. Minn. and Tex.; common. Shrub forming dense thickets, or sometimes at the south a small tree 6--35 deg. high.

Sec. 3. _Flowers in autumn (Sept.) from catkins of the season; the fertile mostly solitary in the axils of the leaves, ripening the fruit a year later; fruit wingless._