74 FIELT) AND WOODLAND PLANTS 



four-lobed prickly cupule which afterwards forms a closed case. 

 The fruits are tliree-cornered nuts, enclosed in the hardened cupules 

 which spUt longitudinally, when ripe, into four valves that are lined 

 with soft, silky hairs. 



The Hornbeam [Carpinus Betiduft) is a much smaller tree, more 

 or less abundant in tl\e damp, clayey woods of the South. Its bark 

 is smooth or slightly furrowed, of a light greyish colour, and its 

 leaves are elliptical-ovate, with a doubly-serrate margin and acute 

 point. The arrangement of the principal veins is the same as that 

 of the Beech, and the young leaves are similarly plaited in the 

 bud, but the expanded leaves are broader at the base than those 

 of the Beech, are rougher, and are permanently hairy on the under 

 surface. As with the Beech, the leaves assume very pleasing tints 

 in the autumn, turning first yellow, and then through shades of 

 orange to brown ; and, in sheltered woods, many of them remain 

 on the tree throughout the winter. The flowers a])pear in May 

 and early June, and are imperfect, male and female flowers being 

 in separate catkins, but on the same tree. The staminate catkins 

 are pendulous and leafy, each flower having oval, acute bracts, and 

 from three to twelve stamens with forked filaments and hairy 

 anthers. The pistillate flowers are in erect catkins and are arranged 

 in pairs. Their outer bracts are shed early, but the inner bracts or 

 hrncteoles, which are three-lobed, grow very large as the fruits 

 ripen, at which time, also, the whole catkin becomes pendulous. 

 Each flower has a two-chambered ovary, and two styles ; but only 

 one cell develops, and thus the fruits, each with only one seed, lie 

 on the bases of the leafy bracteoles which aid in their dispersion by 

 the wind. 



Our last example of the Cupidiferce is the well-known Hazel 

 (Corylus Avellana), which is generally found in trimmed hedges and 

 among the undergrowth of woods. Its bark on the trunk and 

 larger branches is grey ; but brown, hauy, and dotted with glands, 

 on the young shoots. The leaves are roundish, slightly cordate and 

 unfeymmetrical, with a sharp apex and an irregularly -serrate edge ; 

 and, when young, are longitudinally plaited in the bud. The 

 flowers appear before the leaves, and are mature in March or early 

 April, but the early stages of the catkins may be observed on the 

 tree througliout the winter, and even in the preceding autumn. 

 The staminate catkins are pendulous, from one to two inches in 

 length when in full bloom, and are commonly known to country 

 children as ' lambs' -tails.' They are of a bright yellow colour, 



