Carpinus
(Latin name used by Pliny). Horn-beam. ORD. Cupuliferae. Hardy deciduous trees, mostly medium-sized. Male flowers, catkins later, sessile, cylindrical; bracts imbricate. Female flowers in lux terminal catkins; outer bracts entire; inner bracts in pairs, three lobed. Leaves simple, alternate, exstipulate, deciduous. C. Betulus is the one most generally grown. It forms a good hedge plant, and bears pruning well, while the leaves remain on after they are dead, thus affording good shelter. It is not much grown in this country, but its timber is valuable; it is also very useful as an agricultural tree, to shelter exposed fields, as it endures rough and windy situations, and thrives well in common soil. The seeds, which are formed in a small nut, are ripe at the end of autumn, but they vegetate irregularly, some coming the first year, some the second. If they grow thickly, they should be transplanted when a year old, but if thinly, they may be allowed to stand for two years, and then transplanted, cutting off the extremities of the roots. After two years in nursery lines, they are fit for hedges. If not then removed, and a greater space allowed them to grow in, they will run up tall, and be unfit for hedge plants.
C. americana (American).* l. ovate-oblong, pointed. sharply doubly serrate, soon nearly smooth; bractlets three-lobed, halbert-shaped, sparingly cut-toothed on one side. h. 10ft. to 50ft. North America, 1812. C. Betulus (Birch-like).* Common Hornbeam. fl. yellowish. May. fr., bractsflat, oblong, serrated, with two lateral lobes; nuts brown, ripe in October or November. h. 30ft. to 70ft. Britain. There are several varieties, including aurea-variegata (golden-variegated-leaved), incisa (cut-leaved), quercifolia (Oak-leaved), and variegata (variegated).