C A R P I N U S Betulus.
Horn-beam.
MONOECIA Polyandria.
G en. Char. Male, Cal. the scale of a catkin, roundish.
Siam. 8— 20. Female, Cal. toothed. Styles 2.
Nut of I cell, closely invested with the angular
calyx.
Spec. Char. Bracteas of the fruit oblong, serrated,
flat, with two lateral lobes.
Syn. Carpinus Betulus. Linn. Sp. Pi. 1 4 1 6 . Sm. FI.
Brit. 1 0 2 9 . Huds. 4 2 2 . With. 4 4 2 . Hull. 2 1 3 .
Relh. 3 7 8 .
Ostrya ulmo similis, fructu in umbilicis foliaceis. Raii
Syri.4;5 \.
T h e Hornbeam thrives on a rather meagre clayey damp soil,
such as Epping forest and Finchley common, where it abounds,
flowering in April. Linnaeus justly observes that the wood
is white, very tough, and harder than hawthorn. The tree
is of a humble size, densely branched, and bears cutting,
qualities which render it fit for garden hedges in the north of
Europe. The inner bark dyes yellow.
The surface of the hark is smooth, and pale grey. Leaves
alternate, stalked, ovate or somewhat heart-shaped, pointed,
doubly serrated, thin, smooth, with very straight parallel
veins hairy at their origin. Male catkins from short lateral
shoots, pendulous, tawny, composed of large, roundish or
ovate, acute, entire, fringed scales, accompanied by several
internal, smaller ones. Stamens about 8, 10 or 12; Linnreus
says, sometimes 16. Female flowers in a terminal, loose,
pendulous, bracteated cluster rather than a catkin, each
bractea accompanied by several narrow internal deciduous
ones. The flowers are in 2 parcels, (2 or 3 in each,) at every
bractea. Calyx minute. Styles 2, capillary. As the fruit
ripens, the evident nature of the cluster or racemus appears.
Each flower has its separate stalk. Each bractea is enlarged,
3 -cleft, serrated, leafy, veiny and permanent, with a sessile
ovate nut at its base, which is tipped with the permanent base
of the styles, and closely enveloped with the enlarged angular
calyx, whose teeth crown its summit.
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