CORYLUS. 



CORYMBIFER.E. 



most southern of the species of this order is the Beech, of which many 

 varieties occur in the lower parts of South America, Australia, 

 and New Zealand. The order is allied to Juglandacece. For parti- 

 culars respecting the genera of this most important family of plants 

 nee CAHPINCS ; OSIBTA ; COBYLUS ; FAGUS ; CASTAXEA ; QCEBCUS ; 

 LITHOCABPUS. 



Flowers of the Hazel-Xut (Corylia Acellana). 



1, a branch, with the male flowers " in drooping catkins ; the females * in 

 bud-like clusters ; 2, one of the scales of the male catkin, with the stamens 

 attached to it ; 3, a female bud, with the styles projecting beyond the bracts ; 

 4, the young ovaries with the bracts removed ; 5, a section of the ovary, 

 exhibiting the ovules, the toothed calyx, and the base of the style ; 6, a cross 

 section of the ovary ; 7, a longitudinal section of a nut. 



COTIYLUS, a genus of Plants after which the natural order Cory- 

 lactat receives its name. It consists of the different species of hazel- 

 nut, and U distinguished from the genera associated with it by its 

 cupule being a two-leaved lacerated husk, and its ovary having but 

 two cells, in each of which is one ovule. 



C. Avellana, the Common Hazel-Nut. This plant, which is a 

 native of all the cooler parts of Europe, Northern Asia, and North 

 America, is the parent of the many varieties of nuts and filberta now 

 cultivated for their fruit. [HAZEL-NUT, FILBERT, in ABTS AsnSc. l)iv.] 

 It U specifically known by its husks being hispid with glands, leafy, 

 broad, much lacerated, and rather spreading at the point ; never con- 

 tracted into a long tube, nor divided into narrow rigid segments ; by 

 its rounded, heart-shaped, very rugose, angular, toothed, cuspidate 

 leaves, glandular-hispid branches, and shrubby habit. It varies very 

 much in the form of its husks, in the degree of their hispidity, some 

 being nearly smooth, in the shape of their nuts, and in the height to 

 which it grows. In the Hazel-Nut the husk is open at the point, 

 shorter or at least but little longer than the nut, and nearly smooth ; 

 while in the Filbert (Corylua lubuloia of some writers) it is lengthened 

 considerably beyond the nut, and covered more or less with glandular 

 hairs ; all degrees of intermediate structure may be found in the cul- 

 tivated varieties. This plant is found as a large shrub having nume- 

 rous stems rising from the root, or as a small bushy tree with a great 

 number of branches, which are covered with hairs when it is young. 

 It is found all over Great Britain, from Cornwall to Sutherlandshire. 

 It grows at the height of 1600 feet above the level of the sea, in the 

 north of England and Scotland. It is cultivated very generally on 

 account of its nuts, especially in the county of Kent, where it attains 

 its greatest perfection. It is also cultivated on the continent of 

 Europe ; and every year large quantities of the nuts are brought into 

 England from various parts of France, Portugal, and Spain. The 

 hazel is valued in planting principally as an undergrowth. Ita branches 

 and stems are used for various kinds of wicker-work. The wood 

 is said to make the best charcoal for gunpowder, and is also used for 

 making crayons for drawing purposes. 



C. Americana is not distinguishable as a variety from the last 

 species. The Beaked American or Cuckold-Hazel is a pretty purple- 

 leaved kind in shrubberies. 



C. roitrata, the Horned Hazel-Nut. In this the branches are 

 quite free from glandular hispidity, the leaves are oblong, not cordate, 

 doubly toothed, and acuminate, and the husks globular over the nuts, 

 where they are extremely hispid, without ever being glandular ; 

 beyond the nuts the husks are contracted into a tube an inch or more 

 long, and irregularly lacerated at the point. It is a very distinct 

 species inhabiting the mountains of the Carolinas, where it rarely 

 exceeds three or four feet in height. In gardens it is scarcely larger. 



C. Colurna,, the Constantinople Nut, a white-barked tree 20 feet 

 and more high, with an erect trunk and a dense spreading head. The 

 leaves are shining, much less rugose than in the hazel-nut, cordate, 

 angular, serrated, acute or acuminate, slightly hairy on the under 

 surface. The branches and all the other parts are destitute of 

 glands; the husks are campanulate, deeply cut into narrow hairy 

 rather falcate segments. The nuts are roundish aud very hard. It 

 is a native of Asia Minor, and known from all the other garden 

 species by its becoming a tree. It seldom produces its nuts in this 

 climate. 



Besides these there are the C. lacera and C. ferox, two species 

 found in the Himalaya Mountains. Of these, the former, gathered in 

 Kumaon, is hardly different from C. Colurna; the other, from Mount 

 Sheopore, has narrow taper-pointed leaves, and excessively hard nuts 

 inclosed in a husk, with divaricating narrow spiny divisions. 



CORYMB, a form of inflorescence approaching very nearly to the 

 raceme. The raceme consists of an axis, upon which all the flowers 

 are disposed upon footstalks of the same length ; and hence its figure 

 is more or less cylindrical. A corymb consists of an axis, the lower- 

 most flowers on which have very long stalks, and the uppermost 

 very short ones, so that the mass of inflorescence is an inverted cone, 

 as in candytuft and many other cruciferous plants. The corymb is, 

 in fact, an umbel with a lengthened axis. 



From this word is derived the term Corymbose, which is applied not 

 only to flowers, but to any kind of branching in which the lowermost 

 parts are very long and the uppermost very short, as is the case in 

 most species of Aster. [INFLOBESOENCE.] 



CORYMBITERjE, one of the primary subdivisions in the system 

 of Jussieu, of the natural order Composites. It comprehends most of 

 the Tubulijlorce of De Candolle. It is characterised by the absence of 

 albumen, an erect seed, a hemispherical involucre, and the florets of 

 the ray, if present, ligulate. This division comprises by far the 

 largest number of the genera of the large order Composite. The 

 species of Corymbiferoc produce more active secretions, and have been 

 used more extensively by man than those of the other subdivisions of 

 the order. They generally represent the Cichoracece [ClCHOBACE^;] 

 in hot climates, and this will perhaps account for their more active 

 properties. In Great Britain the Corymbiferce are more numerous 

 than either the Cynaraceee or Cichoracece. The number of species in 

 the second edition of Babington's ' Manual of British Botany ' is 

 Corymbifera . . . . . . .62 



Cichoraceu; 51 



Cynaraceat 26 



Composite 139 



De Candolle estimates that the species of the Composites form a 



tenth part of the flowering plants in the world, and this is about the 



proportion in which they occur in Great Britain. 



The following is a synopsis of the British genera of Corymbiferce : 



Tribe I. EupATOBiACE.fi. 



Section I. Eupatoreas. 



Eupatorium cannabinum 

 Section II. Tiusilar/inar. 



Petasitet vulgara 



Tussilago Farfara 



Tribe II. ASTEROIDE.E. 



Section I. A stereos. 

 Aster Tripolium 

 Erigeron ... 3 species 

 /.'/' i.< perennis 

 Solidayo Virgawea 

 Chrysocoma Linosyris 



Section II. Inuleae. 



Invla .... 3 species 

 Pulicaria . . 2 species 



Tribe III. SENECIONIDE.S. 



Section I. Helianlhea. ~ 



JBidens ... 2 species 



Section II. Anthemidete. 



Antliem.it. . . 5 species 

 Achillea ... 4 species 

 Diotis maritima 

 Chrysanthemum 2 species 

 Pyrethrum . . 3 species 

 Matricaaria Chamomilla 

 Artemisia . . 5 species 

 Tanacetum vvlgare 

 - Section III. Gnaphaliece. 



Filago ... 3 species 

 Gnaphalium . 5 species 

 Antennaria . . 2 species 

 Section IV. Senecionecc. 



Doronicum . . 2 species 

 Cineraria . . 2 species 

 Senecio ... 9 species 



