Handbook of the Trees of New England Part 12

=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy throughout New England; grows almost anywhere, but prefers a rich, loamy or gravelly soil. A most graceful and attractive hickory, which is transplanted more readily and grows rather more rapidly than the s.h.a.gbark or pignut, but more inclined than either of these to show dead branches. Seldom for sale by nurserymen or collectors. Grown readily from seed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE XXVII.--Carya amara.]

1. Winter bud.

2. Flowering branch.

3. Sterile flower, back view.

4. Sterile flower, front view.

5. Fertile flower.

6. Fruiting branch.

BETULACEae. BIRCH FAMILY.

=Ostrya Virginica, Willd.=

_Ostrya Virginiana, Willd._

HOP HORNBEAM. IRONWOOD. LEVERWOOD.

=Habitat and Range.=--In rather open woods and along highlands.

Nova Scotia to Lake Superior.

Common in all parts of New England.

Scattered throughout the whole country east of the Mississippi, ranging through western Minnesota to Nebraska, Kansas, Indian territory, and Texas.

=Habit.=--A small tree, 25-40 feet high and 8-12 inches in diameter at the ground, sometimes attaining, without much increase in height, a diameter of 2 feet; trunk usually slender; head irregular, often oblong or loosely and rather broadly conical; lower branches sometimes slightly declining at the extremities, but with branchlets mostly of an upward tendency; spray slender and rather stiff. Suggestive, in its habit, of the elm; in its leaves, of the black birch; and in its fruit, of cl.u.s.ters of hops.

=Bark.=--Trunk and large limbs light grayish-brown, very narrowly and longitudinally ridged, the short, thin segments in old trees often loose at the ends; the smaller branches, branchlets, and in late fall the season's shoots, dark reddish-brown.

=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds small, oblong, pointed, invested with reddish-brown scales. Leaves simple, alternate, roughish, 2-4 inches long, 1-2 inches wide, more or less appressed-p.u.b.escent on both sides, dark green above, lighter beneath; outline ovate to oblong-ovate, sharply and for the most part doubly serrate; apex acute to ac.u.minate; base slightly and narrowly heart-shaped, rounded or truncate, mostly with unequal sides; leafstalks short, p.u.b.escent; stipules soon falling.

=Inflorescence.=--April to May. Sterile flowers from wood of the preceding season, lateral or terminal, in drooping, cylindrical catkins, usually in threes; scales broad, laterally rounded, sharp-pointed, ciliate, each subtending several nearly sessile stamens, filaments sometimes forked, with anthers bearded at the tip: fertile catkins about 1 inch in length, on short leafy shoots, spreading; bracts lanceolate, tapering to a long point, ciliate, each subtending two ovaries, each ovary with adherent calyx, enclosed in a hairy bractlet; styles 2, long, linear.

=Fruit.=--Early September. A small, smooth nut, enclosed in the distended bract; the aggregated fruit resembling a cl.u.s.ter of hops.

=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy throughout New England; prefers dry or well-drained slopes in gravelly or rocky soil; graceful and attractive, but of rather slow growth; useful in shady situations and worthy of a place in ornamental plantations, but too small for street use. Seldom raised by nurserymen; collected plants moved with difficulty. Propagated from seed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE XXVIII.--Ostrya Virginica.]

1. Winter buds.

2. Flowering branch.

3. Sterile flower, back view.

4. Sterile flower, front view.

5. Fertile catkin.

6. Fertile flower.

7. Fruiting branch.

=Carpinus Caroliniana, Walt.=

HORNBEAM. BLUE BEECH. IRONWOOD. WATER BEECH.

=Habitat and Range.=--Low, wet woods, and margins of swamps.

Province of Quebec to Georgian bay.

Rather common throughout New England, less frequent towards the coast.

South to Florida; west to Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, Indian territory, and Texas.

=Habit.=--A low, spreading tree, 10-30 feet high, with a trunk diameter of 6-12 inches, rarely reaching 2 feet; trunk short, often given a fluted appearance by projecting ridges running down from the lower branches to the ground; in color and smoothness resembling the beech; lower branches often much declined, upper going out at various angles, often zigzag but keeping the same general direction; head wide, close, flat-topped to rounded, with fine, slender spray.

=Bark.=--Trunk smooth, close, dark bluish-gray; branchlets grayish; season's shoots light green turning brown, more or less hairy.

=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Leaf-buds small, oval or ovoid, acute to obtuse. Leaves simple, alternate, 2-3 inches long, dull green above, lighter beneath, turning to scarlet or crimson in autumn; outline ovate or slightly obovate oblong or broadly oval, irregularly and sharply doubly serrate; veins prominent and p.u.b.escent beneath, at least when young; apex ac.u.minate to acute; base rounded, truncate, acute, or slightly and unevenly heart-shaped; leafstalk rather short, slender, hairy; stipules p.u.b.escent, falling early.

=Inflorescence.=--May. Sterile flowers from growth of the preceding season in short, stunted-looking, lateral catkins, mostly single; scales ovate or rounded, obtuse, each subtending several stamens; filaments very short, mostly 2-forked; anthers bearded at the tip: fertile flowers at the ends of leafy shoots of the season, in loose catkins; bractlets foliaceous, each subtending a green, ovate, acute, ciliate, deciduous scale, each scale subtending two pistils with long reddish styles.

=Fruit.=--In terminal catkins made conspicuous by the pale green, much enlarged, and leaf-like 3-lobed bracts, each bract subtending a dark-colored, sessile, striate nutlet.

=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy throughout New England; prefers moist, rich soil, near running water, on the edges of wet land or on rocky slopes in shade. Its irregular outline and curiously ridged trunk make it an interesting object in landscape plantations. It is not often used, however, because it is seldom grown in nurseries, and collected plants do not bear removal well. Propagated from the seed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE XXIX.--Carpinus Caroliniana.]

1. Winter buds.

2. Flowering branch.

3. Sterile flower, back view.

4. Sterile flower, front view.

5. Fertile catkin.

6. Fertile flower.

7. Fruiting branch.

=BETULA.=

Inflorescence.--In scaly catkins, sterile and fertile on the same tree, appearing with or before the leaves from shoots of the previous season,--sterile catkins terminal and lateral, formed in summer, erect or inclined in the bud, drooping when expanded in the following spring; sterile flowers usually 3, subtended by a shield-shaped bract with 2 bractlets; each flower consisting of a 1-scaled calyx and 2 anthers, which appear to be 4 from the division of the filaments into two parts, each of which bears an anther cell: fertile catkins erect or inclined at the end of very short leafy branchlets; fertile flowers subtended by a 3-lobed bract falling with the nuts; bractlets none; calyx none; corolla none; consisting of 2-3 ovaries crowned with 2 spreading styles.

=Betula lenta, L.=

BLACK BIRCH. CHERRY BIRCH. SWEET BIRCH.

=Habitat and Range.=--Moist grounds; rich woods, old pastures, fertile hill-slopes, banks of rivers.