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 .