• I.Hazle-ntjt. 



366 THE OXSi FAMILY. 



The Fruits produced by the Oak Family, which are always some kind 

 of nut, are distinguished primarily by the characteristics of the cup or 

 husk in which they are seated. There are three principal varieties, 

 and each is represented in two distinct trees. 



A. 

 Husks thin, smooth, leafy, and more or less torn and ragged at the edge. 

 InH'er scales of the husk enlarged into large three-lohed hracts.l 



one to two inches long, each of them conceaUng a small egg- r^- Hornbeam. 



shaped and prominently ribbed nut i 



Husk unequally lohed, •ndth a torn and ragged margin ; the nuts ' 

 solitary, rounded, perfectly smooth, and projecting half an inch 



or more 



B. 

 Cups short, elegantly circular, rough with hard scales or tubercles upon the out- 

 side, and perfectly even round the edge ; the nuts, called " acorns," solitary, 

 smooth, and projecting nearly an inch. Generally clustered in twos or threes. 



Peduncles of the cups two to four inches long 5. Common Oak. 



Cups sitting close upon the stem C. Sessile-fbuiteI) Oak. 



C. 

 Husks prickly upon the outside, closed while young, but opening at the top when 



ripe ; nuts several in each. 

 Husk with a few scattered prickles, and opening in four valves. 

 Nuts sharply triangular, three quarters of an inch long, and ■ 



pointed 



Husks densely covered with sharp prickles, and falling to pieces] 3. Spanish 

 when ripe. Nuts large, rounded, and hluntly an .-led ) Chesnut. 



HABITATS AND LOCALITIES. 

 1. Hazle-nut — {Corylus Avellana.) 

 Woods, doughs, and hedges, everywhere. Fl. February and March, 

 sometimes as early as January. Nuts ripe in September. 

 Curtis, iii. 551 ; E. B. xi. 723 ; Baxter, v. 338. 

 The filbert is a garden variety of this well-known and valuahle tree, having the 

 leafy cups greatly elongated, so as completely to conceal the nuts, which are also 

 much lengthened. Cob-nuts, Barcelona nuts, and others brought to the fruit 

 market, are of corresponding origin. None of our native fruit-trees are of mora 

 curious and beautiful economy. The young male catkins for the ensuing season 

 are put forth in September, while the nuts of the current year are scarcely ripe ; 

 and in Februury, when they attain their full Icnglli, and hang from the hare 

 brown branches, intermingled with the innumerable crimson tipped buds that 

 contain the female flowers, they form one of the most delightful harbingers of 

 spring. On a line sunny forenoon 



" While yet the wheaten blade 



Scarce shoots above the new-fall'n shower of snow," 



Beech. 



