Leaves 12′—14′ long, with slender glabrous petioles and 5—7 lanceolate to oblanceolate leaflets long-pointed and acuminate at apex, gradually narrowed and unsymmetrical at base, finely serrate, glabrous or very rarely pubescent, often furnished below with small clusters of axillary hairs, the three upper 8′—10′ long and 1½′—2½′ wide and about twice as large as those of the lowest pair. Flowers: staminate in slightly villose aments 2½′—3′ in length, villose, their bract long-pointed, acuminate, villose, twice longer than the calyx-lobes, stamens 4—6, anthers yellow, villose above the middle; pistillate in short-stalked spikes, their involucre only slightly angled, covered with pale yellow hairs, the bract acuminate, twice longer than the bractlets and calyx-lobes. Fruit oblong-obovoid with a stipe-like base to short-obovate and rounded or abruptly cuneate at base, rarely depressed at apex, slightly flattened, often covered with bright yellow scales, 1′—2′ long, 1′—1½′ in diameter, with a husk ⅛′—⅕′ in thickness, opening tardily to the middle usually by one or by two sutures, or often remaining closed; nut broadest toward the rounded apex or oblong and occasionally acute at apex, gradually narrowed and acute at base, often compressed, slightly or rarely prominently angled (f. angulata Sarg.), with a shell ⅛′—⅙′ in thickness; seed small and sweet.
A tree 50°—70° high, with a trunk up to 2° in diameter, stout spreading and drooping branches, and stout or rarely slender glabrous branchlets, reddish brown at the end of their first season, becoming dark gray-brown. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, glabrous, up to ½′ in length, the inner scales puberulous. Bark close, only slightly ridged, light or dark gray.
Distribution. Rochester, Munroe County, New York, through southern Ohio and Indiana to southern Illinois (Tunnel Hill, Johnson County); coast of New Jersey; District of Columbia and southward to the shores of Indian River and the valley of the Callusahatchie River, Florida, and through southern Alabama to western Louisiana; one of the commonest Hickories in the coast region of the south Atlantic and east Gulf states, occasionally ranging inland to central and northern Georgia and western Mississippi.
13. Carya ovalis Sarg.
Leaves 6′—10′ long, with slender petioles often scurfy-pubescent early in the season, soon glabrous, and 7 or rarely 5 lanceolate to oblanceolate, or occasionally obovate finely serrate leaflets, long-pointed and acuminate or rarely rounded at apex, cuneate and unsymmetrical at base, early in the season often scurfy-pubescent and furnished below with small axillary tufts of pale hairs, soon glabrous, the upper 6′ or 7′ long and 1½′—2′ wide, and raised on a stalk ¼′—½′ in length, the lateral sessile, those of the upper pairs as large or slightly smaller than the terminal leaflet. Flowers: staminate in puberulous aments 6′—7′ long, pubescent, their bracts twice longer than the ovate acute calyx-lobes; stamens 4, anthers yellow, thickly covered with pale hairs; pistillate in 1 or 2-flowered spikes, obovoid, more or less thickly covered with yellow scales. Fruit ellipsoidal, acute or rounded at apex, rounded at base, puberulous, 1′—1¼′ long, about ¾′ in diameter, with a husk 1/12′—1/10′ in thickness, splitting freely to the base; nut pale, oblong, slightly flattened, rounded at base, acute or acuminate and 4-angled at apex, the ridges extending for one-third or rarely for one-half of its length, with a shell rarely more than ⅕′ in thickness; seed small and sweet.
A tree sometimes 100° high, with a tall trunk occasionally 3° in diameter, small spreading branches forming a narrow often pyramidal head, and slender lustrous red-brown branchlets marked by pale lenticels, often slightly pubescent when they first appear, soon glabrous. Winter-buds ovoid, obtuse, acute or acuminate; the terminal often ½′ long and twice as large as the lateral, the outer scales red-brown, lustrous and glabrous, the inner covered with close pale tomentum. Bark slightly ridged, pale gray, usually separating freely into small plate-like scales, or occasionally close. Wood heavy, hard and tough, flexible, light or dark brown, with thick lighter-colored sapwood; used for the handles of tools, in the manufacture of wagons and agricultural implements, and largely for fuel.
Distribution. Hillsides and rich woods; western New York, eastern Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia to southern Illinois and central Iowa (Ames, Story County), and southward to the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee, and to central Georgia and Alabama; usually rare and local; most abundant and generally distributed in Indiana. With its varieties usually but incorrectly called “Pignut.”
The following varieties differing in the shape of their fruit are distinguished:
Carya ovalis var. obcordata Sarg.
Carya microcarpa Darling. in part.
Hicoria microcarpa Britt. in part.
Fruit subglobose to short-oblong or slightly obovoid, 1′—1¼′ in diameter, with a husk 1/12′—⅛′ in thickness, splitting freely to the base or nearly to the base by often narrow-winged sutures; nut much compressed, slightly angled and often broadest above the middle, rounded and usually more or less obcordate at apex, narrowed and rounded at base.
Distribution. Southern New England to southern Wisconsin, southwestern Missouri, western North Carolina, central and eastern Georgia, eastern Mississippi and central Alabama; the common and most widely distributed northern variety of Carya ovalis; common in the mountain districts of central Alabama; varying to the f. vestita Sarg. with stouter branchlets covered during their first year with rusty tomentum and more or less pubescent in their second and third seasons, leaflets slightly pubescent below, and with more compressed nuts and puberulous winter-buds. A single tree near Davis Pond, Knox County, Indiana.
Carya ovalis var. odorata Sarg.
Carya microcarpa Darling. in part.
Hicoria microcarpa Britt. in part.
Hicoria glabra var. odorata Sarg. in part.
Fruit subglobose or slightly longer than broad, much flattened, ½′—⅗′ in diameter, with a husk not more than 1/24′ in thickness, splitting freely to the base by sutures sometimes furnished with narrow wings; nut compressed, rounded at apex, rounded or acute at base, slightly or not at all ridged, pale or nearly white, with a shell 1/12′ or less in thickness.
Distribution. Southern New England, eastern Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia to western New York, and southeastern Ontario, and through Ohio and Indiana to southern Illinois; near Atlanta, Georgia, and Starkville, Oktibbaha County, Mississippi; less variable in the size and shape of the fruit than the other varieties of C. ovalis.
Carya ovalis var. obovalis Sarg.
Hicoria glabra Sarg. in part.
Fruit more or less obovoid, about 1′ long and ⅘′ in diameter, with a husk 1/12′—⅛′ thick, splitting freely to the base.
Distribution. Southern New England to Missouri and northern Arkansas; on the mountains of North Carolina, on the coast of Georgia and in north central Alabama. The common “Pignut” in the middle western states, varying to f. acuta Sarg. with nuts pointed at the ends and closer bark; only near Rochester, Munroe County, New York.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.