=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds small, ovate, flattish, acute to rounded. Leaves simple, alternate, 3-5 inches long, two-thirds as wide, dark green and smooth above, beneath pale, hairy along the veins, sometimes in young trees thickly glandular-dotted on both sides; outline ovate, ovate-oblong, or ovate-orbicular, more or less doubly serrate; apex acute to acuminate; base somewhat heart-shaped, truncate or obtuse; leafstalk 1-2 inches long, grooved above, downy; stipules falling early. =Inflorescence.=--April to May. Sterile catkins mostly in threes, 3-4 inches long: fertile catkins 1-1-1/2 inches long, cylindrical, slender-peduncled, erect or spreading; bracts puberulent. =Fruit.=--Fruiting catkins 1-2 inches long, cylindrical, short-stalked, spreading or drooping: nut obovate to oval, narrower than its wings; combined wings butterfly-shaped, nearly twice as wide as long. =Horticultural Value.=--Hardy throughout New England; prefers a well-drained loam or gravelly soil, but does fairly well in almost any situation; young trees rapid growing and vigorous, but with the same tendency to grow irregularly that is shown by the black and yellow birches; transplanted without serious difficulty; not offered by many nurserymen, but may be obtained from northern collectors. [Illustration: PLATE XXXIV.--Betula papyrifera.] 1. Leaf-buds. 2. Flower-buds. 3. Flowering branch. 4. Sterile flower, front view. 5. Fertile flower, front view. 6. Scale of fertile flower. 7. Fruiting branch. 8. Fruit. =Alnus glutinosa, Medic.= EUROPEAN ALDER. This is the common alder of Great Britain and central Europe southward, growing chiefly along water courses, in boggy grounds and upon moist mountain slopes; introduced into the United States and occasionally escaping from cultivation; sometimes thoroughly established locally. In Medford, Mass., there are many of these plants growing about two small ponds and upon the neighboring lowlands, most of them small, but among them are several trees 30-40 feet in height and 8-12 inches in diameter at the ground, distinguishable at a glance from the shrubby native alders by their greater size, more erect habit, and darker trunks. FAGACEAE. BEECH FAMILY. =Fagus ferruginea, Ait.= _Fagus Americana, Sweet. Fagus atropunicea, Sudw._ BEECH. =Habitat and Range.=--Moist, rocky soil. Nova Scotia through Quebec and Ontario. Maine,--abundant; New Hampshire,--throughout the state; common on the Connecticut-Merrimac watershed, enters largely into the composition of the hardwood forests of Coos county; Vermont,--abundant; Massachusetts,--in western sections abundant, common eastward; Rhode Island and Connecticut,--common. South to Florida; west to Wisconsin, Missouri, and Texas.