Part 156 (1/2)

Q. Ph.e.l.lOS RUBRA (?) or COCCINEA (?) (Q. heterophylla, _Michx._); Staten Island and N. J. to Del. and N. C. (BARTRAM'S OAK.)

Q. Ph.e.l.lOS NIGRA (Q. Rudkini, _Britt._); N. J. (_Rudkin_).

Q. ILICIFOLIA COCCINEA (?); Uxbridge, Ma.s.s. (_Robbins._)

7. CASTaNEA, Tourn. CHESTNUT.

Sterile flowers interruptedly cl.u.s.tered in long and naked cylindrical catkins; calyx mostly 6-parted; stamens 8--20; filaments slender; anthers 2-celled. Fertile flowers few, usually 3 together in an ovoid scaly p.r.i.c.kly involucre; calyx with a 6-lobed border crowning the 3--7-celled 6--14-ovuled ovary; abortive stamens 5--12; styles linear, exserted, as many as the cells of the ovary; stigmas small. Nuts coriaceous, ovoid, enclosed 2--3 together or solitary in the hard and thick very p.r.i.c.kly 4-valved involucre. Cotyledons very thick, somewhat plaited, cohering together, remaining underground in germination.--Leaves strongly straight-veined, undivided. Flowers appearing later than the leaves, cream-color; the catkins axillary near the end of the branches, wholly sterile or the upper ones androgynous with the fertile flowers at the base. (The cla.s.sical name, from that of a town in Thessaly.)

1. C. satva, Mill., var. Americana. (CHESTNUT.) A large tree, _leaves oblong-lanceolate, pointed_, serrate with coa.r.s.e pointed teeth, acute at base, when mature _smooth and green both sides_; nuts 2 or 3 in each involucre, therefore flattened on one or both sides, very sweet. (C.

vesca, var., of the Manual.)--Rocky woods and hillsides, S. Maine to Del., along the mountains to N. Ala., and west to S. Mich., S. Ind., and Tenn.

2. C. pumila, Mill. (CHINQUAPIN.) A spreading shrub or small tree; _leaves oblong, acute_, serrate with pointed teeth, _whitened-downy beneath_; involucres small, often spiked; the ovoid pointed nut scarcely half as large as a common chestnut, very sweet, solitary, not flattened.--Rich hillsides and borders of swamps, S. Penn. to Fla., west to S. Ind. and Tex.

8. f.a.gUS, Tourn. BEECH.

Sterile flowers in small heads on drooping peduncles, with deciduous scale-like bracts; calyx bell-shaped, 5--7-cleft; stamens 8--16; filaments slender; anthers 2-celled. Fertile flowers usually in pairs at the apex of a short peduncle, invested by numerous awl-shaped bractlets, the inner coherent at base to form the 4-lobed involucre; calyx-lobes 6, awl shaped; ovary 3-celled with 2 ovules in each cell; styles 3, thread-like, stigmatic along the inner side. Nuts sharply 3-sided, usually 2 in each urn-shaped and soft-p.r.i.c.kly coriaceous involucre, which divides to below the middle into 4 valves. Cotyledons thick, folded and somewhat united; but rising and expanding in germination.--Trees, with a close and smooth ash-gray bark, a light horizontal spray, and undivided strongly straight-veined leaves, which are open and convex in the tapering bud and plaited on the veins.

Flowers appearing with the leaves, the yellowish staminate flowers from the lower, the pistillate from the upper axils of the leaves of the season. (The cla.s.sical Latin name, from f???, _to eat_, in allusion to the esculent nuts.)

1. F. ferruginea, Ait. (AMERICAN BEECH.) Tree 75--100 high; leaves oblong-ovate, taper-pointed, distinctly and often coa.r.s.ely toothed; petioles and midrib soon nearly naked; p.r.i.c.kles of the fruit mostly recurved or spreading.--N. Scotia to Fla., west to Wisc., E. Ill., Mo., and Tex.

ORDER 104. SALICaCEae. (WILLOW FAMILY.)

_Dicious trees or shrubs, with both kinds of flowers in catkins, one to each bract, without perianth; the fruit a 1-celled and 2--4-valved pod, with 2--4 parietal or basal placentae, bearing numerous seeds furnished with long silky down._--Style usually short or none; stigmas 2, often 2-lobed. Seeds ascending, anatropous, without alb.u.men. Cotyledons flattened.--Leaves alternate, undivided, with scale-like and deciduous, or else leaf-like and persistent, stipules. Wood soft and light; bark bitter.

1. Salix. Bracts entire. Flowers with small glands, disks none. Stamens few. Stigmas short. Buds with a single scale.

2. Populus. Bracts lacerate. Flowers with a broad or cup-shaped disk.

Stamens numerous. Stigmas elongated. Buds scaly.

1. SaLIX, Tourn. WILLOW. OSIER. (By M. S. BEBB, Esq.)

Bracts (_scales_) of the catkins entire. Sterile flowers of 3--10, mostly 2, distinct or united stamens, accompanied by 1 or 2 small glands. Fertile flowers also with a small flat gland at the base of the ovary; stigmas short.--Trees or shrubs, generally growing along streams, with terete and lithe branches. Leaves mostly long and pointed, entire or glandularly toothed. Buds covered by a single scale, with an inner adherent membrane (separating in n. 14). Catkins appearing before or with the leaves. (The cla.s.sical Latin name.)

-- 1. _Aments borne on short lateral leafy branchlets; scales yellowish, falling before the capsules mature; filaments hairy below, all free; style very short or obsolete; stigmas thick, notched. Trees or large shrubs; leaves taper-pointed._

[*] _Leaves closely serrate with inflexed teeth; capsules glabrous._

[+] _Stamens 3--5 or more._

[++] _Trees 15--50 high, with rough bark and slender twigs; no petiolar glands; sterile aments elongated, narrowly cylindrical; flowers somewhat remotely subverticillate; scales entire, short and rounded, crisp-villous on the inside._

1. S. ngra, Marsh. (BLACK WILLOW.) _Leaves narrowly lanceolate, very long-attenuate from near the roundish or acute base to the usually curved tip_, often downy when young, at length _green and glabrous_ except the petiole and midrib; stipules large, semicordate, pointed and persistent, or small, ovoid and deciduous; fruiting aments (1--3' long) more or less dense; capsules ovate-conical, shortly pedicelled.--Banks of streams and lakes, bending over the water; common.--Var. FALCaTA, Torr. Leaves narrower and scythe-shaped--Var. WaRDI, Bebb. Leaves broader, often 1' wide, glaucous and veined beneath; stipules large, round-reniform; aments long, loosely flowered; capsules globose-conical, long-pedicelled. Rocky islands of the Potomac (_Ward_); Falls of the Ohio (_Short_); Mo. The leaves alone are easily mistaken for those of n. 14.--A hybrid of this species with S. alba, var. vitellina, is found in Wayne Co., N. Y. (_E. L. Hankenson_).

2. S. amygdalodes, Anders. _Leaves lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate_, 2--4' long, attenuate-cuspidate, _pale or glaucous beneath; petioles long and slender_; stipules minute, very early deciduous; _fertile aments becoming very loose in fruit_ from the lengthening of the slender pedicels.--Central N. Y. (_Dudley_) to Mo.; common westward.

[++][++] _A shrub or small bushy tree, 6--15 high, with smooth bark and rather stout polished twigs; petioles glandular; sterile aments thick, oblong-cylindrical, densely flowered; stamens commonly 5; scales dentate, hairy at base, smooth above._