Black willow is found along streams throughout the state. It rarely grows taller than 50 feet and is frequently found growing singly or in clumps along the water courses. In winter the easily separable bright reddish-brown or golden, naked twigs are quite conspicuous. The BARK is deeply divided into broad, flat ridges which separate into thick plate-like scales. On old trees it becomes shaggy. In color it varies from light brown tinged with orange, to nearly black. The LEAVES are from 3 to 6 inches long, and less than ½ inch wide; the tips are greatly tapered and the entire margin finely toothed. The leaves are bright green on both sides, turning pale yellow in the early autumn. The FLOWERS are in catkins, the male and female on separate trees. The FRUIT is a capsule containing numerous minute seeds with long silky hairs which enable them to be blown long distances. [Illustration: BLACK WILLOW (Leaf, two-thirds natural size; fruit and twig, natural size)] The WOOD is soft, light, and not strong. A high grade of charcoal, used in the manufacture of gunpowder, is obtained from willow wood, and it is the chief wood used in manufacture of artificial limbs. AMERICAN HORNBEAM (Blue Beech) Carpinus caroliniana Walt. American hornbeam or blue beech, also known as ironwood and water beech, is a small slow-growing, bushy tree with a spreading top of slender, crooked or drooping branches. It is found along streams and in low ground, usually in the shade of other trees. Its height is usually from 20 to 30 feet and its diameter 4 to 8 inches, although it sometimes grows larger. [Illustration: AMERICAN HORNBEAM (Leaf and fruit, one-half natural size; twig, natural size)] The TRUNK is fluted with irregular ridges or “muscles” extending up and down the tree. The BARK is smooth, 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, and 1 to 3 inches long. They resemble those of the black or sweet birch, but are smaller. The FLOWERS are borne in catkins separately on the same tree; the male catkin about 1½ inches long, the female, about ¾ of an inch, with small, leaf-like, three-lobed green scales. The FRUIT is a nutlet about ⅓ inch long. It falls, attached to the leaf-like scale which acts as a wing 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. The tree is of little commercial importance and often occupies space in the woods that should be utilized by more valuable species. EASTERN HOPHORNBEAM (Ironwood) Ostrya virginiana (Mill.) K. Koch