Part 8

The winter buds are 1/2 inch long, egg-shaped, polished, and light brown.

The fruit is pear-shaped or rounded, usually with a neck at the base, very thin husks splitting only half way to the base or not at all. The nut is smooth, light brown in color, rather thick-shelled, and has a somewhat astringent edible kernel.

The wood is heavy, hard, strong, tough and flexible. Its uses are the same as those of the other hickories.

Buckley's hickory, Carya buckleyi Durand, occurs on sandy uplands in the southwest. It is a small tree with spreading, contorted branches. The fruit is contained in a hairy husk, the nut is angular, marked with pale veins and has a sweet kernel.

+BLUE BEECH+ Carpinus caroliniana Walt.

THE blue beech, or American hornbeam, belongs to the birch family rather than to the beeches. It is a small slow-growing bushy tree, 20 to 30 feet tall with a diameter 4 to 8 inches. It is found along streams and in low ground through the State.

Leaf, one-half natural size. Twig, one-half natural size.]

The trunk is smooth fluted with irregular ridges extending up and down the tree. The bark is light brownish-gray to dark bluish-gray in color, sometimes marked with dark bands extending horizontally on the trunk.

The leaves are simple, alternate, oval, long-pointed, doubly-toothed along the margin, 2 or 3 inches in length. They resemble those of the American elm, but are smaller and thinner.

The flowers, appearing after the leaves, are borne in catkins separately on the same tree; the staminate catkins are about 1-1/2 inches long, the pistillate being only 3/4 of an inch long with small leaf-like green scales each bearing 2 pistils with long scarlet styles.

The fruit ripens in midsummer, but often remains on the tree long after the leaves have fallen. It is a nutlet about 1/3 of an inch long, attached to a leaf-like halberd-shaped bract which acts as a wing in aiding its distribution by the wind.

The wood is tough, close-grained, heavy and strong. It is sometimes selected for use for levers, tool handles, wooden cogs, mallets, wedges, etc.

Another small tree of the birch family is the speckled alder, Alnus incana Moench, which is found occasionally in wet places in the northern part of the State. The black alder, Alnus glutinosa Gaertn., a European tree, has been planted near ponds. The flowers of the alders are in catkins and among the earliest in the spring. The fruit is a small cone which persists throughout the winter.

+HOP HORNBEAM+ Ostrya virginiana K. Koch

THIS tree is also called ironwood and gets its common names from the quality of its wood and the hop-like fruit. It is a small, slender, generally round-topped tree, from 22 to 30 feet high and 7 to 10 inches in diameter. The top consists of long, slender branches, commonly drooped toward the ends. It is found throughout the State.

Twig, one-half natural size. Leaf, one-third natural size.]

The bark is mostly light brown or reddish-brown, and finely divided into thin scales by which the tree, after a little acquaintance, can be easily recognized.

The leaves are simple, alternate, generally oblong with narrowed tips, sharply toothed along the margin, sometimes doubly toothed, from 2 to 3 inches long.

The flowers are of two kinds on the same tree; the staminate in drooping catkins which form the previous summer, the pistillate, in erect catkins on the newly formed twigs. The fruit, which resembles that of common hop vine, consists of a branch of leafy bracts 1 to 2 inches long containing a number of flattened ribbed nutlets.

The wood is strong, hard, durable, light brown to white, with thick pale sapwood. It is often used for fence posts, handles of tools, mallets and other small articles.

The white birch, Betula papyrifera Marsh., of the North Woods is rare in Illinois. It is found in Jo Daviess and Carroll counties and along the shores of Lake Michigan. The white papery bark distinguishes it from all other trees and was used by the northern Indians for covering their canoes and for making baskets, bags and other useful and ornamental things.

+RIVER BIRCH+ Betula nigra L.

THE river, or back birch, is at home, as the name implies, along water courses, and inhabits the deep, rich soils along the borders of the larger rivers of the State and in swamps which are sometimes inundated for weeks at a time.

Two-thirds natural size.]

The bark provides a ready means of distinguishing this tree. It varies from reddish-brown to cinnamon-red in color, and peels back in tough papery layers. These layers persist on the trunk, presenting a very ragged and quite distinctive appearance. Unlike the bark of our other birches, the thin papery layers are usually covered with a gray powder. On older trunks, the bark on the main trunk becomes thick, deeply furrowed and of a dark reddish-brown color.

The leaves are simple, alternate, 2 to 3 inches long, more or less oval in shape, with double-toothed edges. The upper surface is dark green and the lower a pale yellowish-green.

The flowers are in catkins, the two kinds growing on the same tree. The fruit is cone-shaped about 1 inch long, and densely crowded with little winged nutlets that ripen from May to June.

The wood is strong and fairly close-grained. It has been used to some extent in the manufacture of woodenware, in turnery and for wagon hubs.