Trees with alternate, strongly straight-veined, almost entire to deeply pinnatifid leaves. Flowers inconspicuous, appearing with the leaves. Fruit a prickly bur, inclosing 2 triangular, sharp-ridged nuts, the bur hanging on the trees during the greater part of the winter. Leaf-buds very elongated, slender, sharp-pointed. * The straight veins all ending in the teeth; native 1. * Margin varying from entire to deeply pinnatifid, the straight veins occasionally ending in the notches 2. [Illustration: F. ferrugínea.] 1. =Fàgus ferrugínea=, Ait. (AMERICAN BEECH.) Leaves thin, oblong-ovate, taper-pointed, distinctly and often coarsely toothed; petioles and midrib ciliate with soft silky hairs when young, soon almost naked. The very straight veins run into the teeth. Prickles of the fruit mostly recurved or spreading. Large tree, 60 to 100 ft. high, with grayish-white, very smooth bark, and firm, light-colored, close-grained wood. Wild throughout, and frequently cultivated. [Illustration: F. sylvática.] 2. =Fàgus sylvática=, L. (EUROPEAN BEECH.) Leaves often similar to those of the American Beech, but usually shorter and broader; the border, often nearly entire, is wavy in some varieties, and in others deeply pinnatifid. The bark in most varieties is darker than in the American. This Beech, with its numerous varieties, is the one usually cultivated. Among the most useful varieties are _atropurpurea_ (Purple Beech), with the darkest foliage of any deciduous tree, and almost entire-margined leaves; _laciniata_ (Cut-leaved Beech), with very deeply cut leaves; and _argentea variegata_ (Silver Variegated Beech), having in the spring quite distinctly variegated leaves. ORDER =XL. SALICÀCEÆ.= (WILLOW FAMILY.) A small order of soft-wooded trees and shrubs, abundantly distributed in the northern temperate and frigid zones. GENUS =91. SÀLIX.= Soft-wooded trees or shrubs growing in damp places, with alternate, usually quite elongated, pointed, deciduous leaves, without lobes. Stipules often large, leaf-like, and more or less persistent through the summer; sometimes scale-like and dropping early. The stipules are always free from the leafstalk and attached to the twig at small spots just below the leafstalk. Even if the stipules have dropped off, the small scars remain. Flowers staminate and pistillate on separate trees (dioecious), in elongated catkins in early spring. Fruit consists of catkins of small pods with numerous seeds having silky down at one end. The seeds usually drop early. Among the Willows there are so many hybrids and peculiar varieties as to render their study difficult, and their classification, in some cases, impossible. The following Key will probably enable the student to determine most specimens. No attempt has been made to include all the cultivated forms. * Spray decidedly weeping 5. * Spray not decidedly weeping. (=A.=)