7. C. amàra, Nutt. (Bitter-nut or Swamp H.) Scales of the small yellowish buds about 6, valvate in pairs, caducous in leafing; catkins and young herbage more or less pubescent, soon becoming almost glabrous; leaflets 7–11, lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate; fruit globular, narrowly 6-ridged; nut globular, short-pointed, white (barely 1´ long), thin-walled; seed at first sweet-tasted, soon extremely bitter.—Moist soil, N. Eng. to Fla., west to Minn., E. Neb., and Tex. Tree 50–75° high; husk and nut-shell thinner and less hard than in other species.
Order 102. MYRICÀCEÆ. (Sweet-Gale Family.)
Monœcious or diœcious shrubs, with both kinds of flowers in short scaly catkins, and resinous-dotted often fragrant leaves,—differing from the Birches chiefly in the 1-celled ovary with a single erect orthotropous ovule, and the drupe-like nut. Involucre and perianth none.
1. MYRÌCA, L. Bayberry. Wax-Myrtle.
The only genus.—Flowers solitary under a scale-like bract and with a pair of bractlets, the sterile in oblong or cylindrical, the fertile in ovoid or globular catkins, from axillary scaly buds; stamens 2–8; filaments somewhat united below; anthers 2-celled. Ovary with 2–8 scales at its base, and 2 thread-like stigmas. Fruit a small globular or oblong nut, or dry drupe, coated with resinous grains or wax. (Μυρίκη, the ancient name of the Tamarisk or some other shrub; perhaps from μυρίζω, to perfume.)
[*] Mostly diœcious; fertile catkins ovoid; ovary with 2–4 scales at base; nut globular; leaves entire or somewhat serrate.
1. M. Gàle, L. (Sweet Gale.) Shrub 3–5° high; leaves wedge-lanceolate, serrate toward the apex, pale, later than the flowers; sterile catkins closely clustered; nuts in imbricated heads, 2-winged by the two thick ovate scales which coalesce with its base.—Wet borders of ponds, Newf. to N. Eng. and along the Great Lakes to Minn., south in the mountains to Va.
2. M. cerífera, L. (Bayberry. Wax-Myrtle.) Leaves oblong-lanceolate, narrowed at the base, entire or wavy-toothed toward the apex, shining and resinous-dotted both sides, somewhat preceding the flowers, fragrant; sterile catkins scattered, oblong; scales wedge-shaped at the base; nuts scattered and naked, bony, and incrusted with white wax.—Sandy soil near the coast, from Nova Scotia to Fla. and Ala.; also on L. Erie. Shrub 3–8° high, but sometimes a tree 35° high; fruit sometimes persistent for 2 or 3 years.
[*][*] Frequently monœcious; fertile catkins globular; ovary surrounded by 8 long linear-awl-shaped persistent scales; nut ovoid-oblong; leaves pinnatifid with many rounded lobes.
3. M. asplenifòlia, Endl. Shrub 1–2° high, with sweet scented fern-like linear-lanceolate leaves; stipules half heart-shaped; scales of the sterile catkins kidney-heart-shaped, pointed. (Comptonia asplenifolia, Ait.)—Sterile hills, N. Eng. to N. C., west to Minn. and Ind.