834 A MANUAL OP FORESTRY. 



which are whiter below. First leaves soon formed and 

 typical. 



14. HAZEL. 



Corylus avellana (L.). Cupuliferse. 



Shrub, or small tree, much branched, even at the 

 base. True bark only at the base of old trees, rough and 

 scaly ; ordinary cortex, grey to reddish-brown, shining, 

 and abundantly supplied with horizontally elongated 

 lenticels, the thin periderm peeling off in annular strips, 

 like that of the Cherry. Young branches sage-green 

 or reddish, and covered with glandular hairs. 



Buds short, ovoid, blunt, and somewhat compressed. 



Leaves alternate (spiral or distichous), petiolate, 

 obliquely cordate-acuminate and bi-serrate, rough and 

 with prominent venation. 



Male flowers in cylindrical, scaly catkins, which are 

 formed in the autumn and persist through the winter. 

 Female flowers in tufts looking like fat buds, but dis- 

 tinguished by the crimson stigmas. Both are exposed 

 long before the leaves are out. 



Fruit, the well-known hazel-nut, in an involucre of 

 leafy bracts. 



Wood, reddish-white, like Beech, but with broad 

 false rays like Hornbeam. 



Seed (enclosed in the pericarp the shell) exal- 

 buminous, with large fleshy cotyledons, which remain 

 buried. First leaves typical. 



