CATKINS 



81 



FIG. 23. Scale of Hazel- 

 catkin, with male flowers. 

 Magnified. See also p. 

 290. 



stamens, which are deeply cleft and apparently 

 double. The cone of the Hazel consists of a number 

 of overlapping scales, in the midst of which can be 

 discovered by careful search 

 several bracts, each of which 

 acts as a sheath to two flowers. 

 Every female flower bears two 

 carpels, which are indicated by 

 the two crimson styles, but in 

 ripening one cell becomes sup- 

 pressed, and each ripe ovary 

 encloses, as a rule, only a single 

 seed. Double-seeded filberts 

 are not, however, very un- 

 common. 



The flowers of Hazel first appear, in their unexpanded 

 state, in autumn ; the catkins pass the winter without 

 external protection, but the female flowers are 

 wrapped up within the enve- 

 loping scales. In March the 

 styles lengthen, pushing their 

 way through the apex of the 

 cone, where their crimson 

 colour makes them very con- 

 spicuous. Only a few of the 

 female flowers persist ; two, 

 three or four may set their 

 seeds and produce nuts. The 

 bracts grow steadily through 

 the summer, and form envelopes around the nuts, and 

 these envelopes have the form and often the colour of 

 leaves. The same thing may be observed in the 



G 



FIG. 24. Three pistillate flowers 

 of Birch, with their enclosing 

 scales. Magnified. 



