BETULACEAE 



63 



The solitary, alternate buds are round to ovoid, obtuse, gray- 

 pubescent. l4 inch long, and have 4 distinctly exposed scales. 

 They are sessile and seated somewhat obliquely above rather 



FIG. 9 



Corylus cornuta 



Corylus americana 



small, half-round to triangular and somewhat raised leaf-scars, 

 each marked by 3 bundle traces and flanked by elongated stipule 



scars. 



The graceful, ashen staminate catkins, pendulous at the ends 

 of branches or in leaf axils near branch ends, are up to 2]/i 

 inches long. They develop in the fall and flower the next spring. 

 They may be single, or 2 to 5 may occur together. Their scales 

 are pubescent, and each scale subtends a stamen. Pistillate 

 flowers occur in inconspicuous, budlike tufts at the ends of 

 branchlets and in axils of upper leaves on the current year's 

 growth. These mature in the fall into shell-covered nuts, each 

 inclosed by 2 enlarged, more or less pubescent and glandular- 

 hairy bracts. The nuts, which occur in groups of 2 to 4, are 

 globose and light brown, and the shell inclosing them is large, 

 bony, and pubescent at the base. The mature nuts are yl to ^ 

 inch in diameter. 



