HARPER'S GUIDE TO WILD FLOWERS 



hottest weather; neither does the snuff of these ever offend 

 the sense like that of a tallow candle, but, instead of being 

 disagreeable, if an accident put a candle out, it yields a 

 pleasant fragrance to all who are in the room, insomuch that 

 nice people often put them out on purpose to have the in- 

 cense of the expiring snuff." 



Sweet Fern 



M. asplenifblia. — Fertile flowers, in ball-like catkins, the fruit 

 being a little hard, green nut surrounded by 8 long, awl-shaped, 

 persistent green scales. In the sterile catkins the scales are 

 pointed above, heart or kidney - shape below. Leaves, long, 

 lance-shape, cut into fern-like divisions. April and May. 



In woods and on hillsides where the soil is dry and sandy. 

 A favorite, common, low shrub, whose leaves when crushed give 

 out a pleasant odor. They droop quickly after being picked. 



Hazelnut. Filbert 



Corylus americana. — Family, Birch. Color of catkins, greenish. 

 Leaves, oval or ovate, rounded or heart - shape at base, long- 

 pointed at apex, evenly and finely toothed, smooth above, softly 

 hairy beneath, thin, short-petioled. Petioles and new twigs some- 

 times bristly, with small glands interspersed between the hairs. 

 Shrubs or small trees. March and April. 



Staminate flowers in catkins at the ends of the old twigs 

 (of the previous season), coming long before the leaves, 3 to 4 

 inches long, each flower consisting of 4 or more stamens and 2 

 bractlets, without calyx. Pistillate flowers, in clusters at the 

 end of this season's branches, consisting of a calyx, a 2-celled 

 ovary, a short style, and 2 stigmas. Underneath are 2 large 

 bracts, which in fruit enlarge and cover the edible nut, grow- 

 ing beyond it, leaf-like, fringed, and torn around the edges. 

 Shrub 4 to 8 feet high, leafy, branched. 



In dry thickets, Maine to Florida and westward to Kansas. 



Beaked Hazelnut 



C, rostrata. — Leaves, broader than the last, pointed, somewhat 

 heart - shape at base, their serrulate margins regularly incised, 

 hairy on the veins beneath, petioles and twigs not glandular and 

 bristly. The involucral bracts surrounding the nuts unite at 

 the summit and are prolonged into a bristly, tubular beak, torn 

 at apex, much longer than the fruit. 



Common, like the preceding, throughout all the Atlantic 

 States and in the mountains to Georgia. The filbert is a 



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