Carpinus Betuius, L.

The Hornbeam. A tree of 80 feet high. Middle and South Europe. Wood pale, of a horny toughness and hardness, close-grained, but not elastic. This tree would serve to arrest the progress of bushfires, if planted in copses or hedges like willows and poplars around forest plantations. A smaller species, Carpinus Americana, Mich., yields the Ironwood of North America. Four species occur in Japan (C. cordata, C. erosa, C. laxiflora, C.japonica (Blume). Carpinus viminea (Wallich) is a species with durable wood from the middle regions of Nepal.