178 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



The leaves are three or four inches long, and two wide, 

 oblong ovate or elliptical, heart-shaped at base, beautifully ta- 

 pering to a long point, unequally and sharply serrate, smooth 

 above, paler and somewhat hairy, particularly at the axils and 

 along the veins, beneath, thin, of a delicate texture, and sitting 

 on very short, often hairy footstalks. In autumn, the leaves 

 assume various shades of orange brown, or yellowish brown, 

 and russet. 



The barren flowers, which expand in May, at the same time 

 with the leaves, or just before, are in cylindrical, pendulous cat- 

 kins, one or two inches long, of a tawny, brown, or purple 

 color, at the ends of the twigs of the last year. The scales of 

 which they are formed are very short, broad ovate, acuminate, 

 thickly ciliate, and hairy at the base within. The stamens are 

 twelve or more, one-celled, bearded at tip, resting, near their 

 base, on short, irregularly branched, hair-like filaments. 



The fertile flowers come from the same bud with the leaves, 

 so that they are at last at the end of a leafy branch. This bud 

 is enclosed by several scales, and each leaf, plaited and folded 

 together within, has at its base a pair of thin, pointed, striate, 

 stipular scales, which soon fall. The leaves and the minute 

 branches are invested with bristle-like hairs. Above the leaves 

 are the slender catkins, half an inch long, made up of very 

 hairy, long, pointed scales, which soon fall off. Within them 

 are the smaller but more permanent scales which protect the 

 future fruit. Several of the lower ones contain nothing. The 

 upper ones protect each two sacks, conical at base, and ending 

 in cylindrical, hairy tubes, from which project the two hair-like, 

 purple or red stigmas, surmounting the enclosed ovary. At the 

 period of the bursting of the anthers, the female catkin is three 

 or four tenths of an inch in length. This rapidly enlarges, and, 

 at maturity, is an inch, or sometimes two or three inches long, 

 and of half that width. This compound fruit is a collection of 

 follicles, resembling a hop, erect, finally pendulous, on a club- 

 shaped, hairy stalk of the same length, terminating the branch- 

 lets, and a conspicuous ornament in July and after. The seed- 

 vessels, to the number of twelve to twenty, are aggregated in 

 pairs. Each is an ovate, flattened, membranaceous, veined, 



