​AMENTIFERAE, or Amentaceae, a name which has been used to include in one class several natural orders of plants which bear their flowers in catkins (amenta). They are trees and shrubs chiefly of temperate climates, and include many common British trees. It comprised the following orders:—Salicaceae, willows and poplars; Corylaceae, hazel, hornbeam; Betulaceae, birch, alder; Fagaceae, oak, beech, chestnut; Casuarinaceae, Casuarina (beefwood); Platanaceae, plane; Juglandaceae, walnut; Myricaceae, bog myrtle. This class is not retained in the most modern systems of classification.