Vermont Shrubs and Woody Vines 



^9 



usually of three to five feet, with stems small and clustered ow- 

 ing to a tendency to throw up suckers from the base. The 

 shape of leaf and fruit are well shown in the accompanying cut. 

 The leaf is usually two to three inches long, and rather harsh 

 to the touch. The flowers appear before the leaves in earliest 

 spring. The staminate or pollen-bearing are in graceful 

 drooping catkins ; the pistillate ones, from which the nuts are to 

 develop, are smaller, budlike and scarcely noticeable except for 

 the bright red stigmas protruding from the scales. The bracts 

 rapidly enlarge in early summer and show the beaked character, 

 but the nuts do not mature till autumn. 



AMERICAN HAZELNUT. Corylus cinicHcaiia Walt. 



This is naturally a more southern plant than the preced- 

 ing, thriving at its best in the warmer, longer summers found 



southward and westward. The 

 shrub is taller and the nut some- 

 what larger than that of the 

 other species. The nut varies 

 much in quality and size, the 

 best being nearly as large as the 

 ordinary market filberts and of 

 quite as agreeable flavor. With- 

 out doubt the best of these will 

 some day be brought into cul- 

 ture and probably improved as 

 the European species has been. 



American Hazexnut, X %. 



