322 WEEDS AND USEFUL PLANTS. 



finding, and water-smelling have been enabled, in some degree even in 

 this " progressive " age to keep pace with the sublime mysteries of 

 Clairvoyance, and Spiritual Kappings, as well as with the lucrative 

 manufacture of Panaceas, and Indian Specifics. It is indeed both hu- 

 miliating and discouraging to contemplate the facility with which a 

 large portion of mankind can be made the dupes of such miserable 

 trumpery. 



2, C, America 'na, Marshall. Leaves orbicular-cordate, acuminate ; 

 stipules ovate ; involucre ventricose-campanulate, much larger than the 

 nut, with the limb compressed, dilated, lacerately many-cleft. 



AMERICAN CORYLUS. Hazle-uut. Wild Filbert. 



Shrub. Stem 4-6 feet high, slender, brandling, the young branches virgate, pubes- 

 cent and glandular-hispid. Leaves 3-6 inches long, varying from roundish-cordate to 

 ovate and obovate, dentate-serrate, pubescent ; petioles one-fourth of an inch to an inch 

 long. Stipules ovate-lanceolate, caducous. Aments preceding the leaves, 1-2 inches long. 

 Pistillate Jloiuers in pedunculate squamose clusters, the scales finally enlarging, uniting 

 and forming the involucres of the nuts. Nut subglobose, somewhat compressed at apex, 

 rather wider than long, finely pubescent, embraced by the subcoriaceous involucre, which 

 is twice as long as the nut, glandular-hirsute externally, ventricose at base, with the limb 

 bilabiate and irregularly lacerate-dentate. 



Borders of thickets, fence-rows, &c. : throughout the United States. Fl. March - April. 

 Fr. Sept. 



Obs. This shrub is generally well known for its esculent seeds, though 

 I believe it has never been thought worth while to cultivate it. There 

 is another native species common northward, the Beaked Hazle-nut (C. 

 rostra'ta, Ait.), which has the involucre prolonged into a bristly beak 

 extending an inch beyond the nut. 



5. CAKPI'NUS, L. HORNBEAM. 



[The ancient classical name.] 



STAMINATE FL. in lateral drooping aments with simple ovate scale-like 

 bracts, without a proper calyx. Stamens 12 at the base of each bract ; 

 anthers 1-celled, hairy at apex. PISTILLATE FL. in pairs, with small de- 

 ciduous bracts and enlarging foliaceous 1-sidod involucres, arranged in ter- 

 minal loose araent-like racemes. Ovary 2-celled. Stigmas 2, filiform. Nuts 

 in pairs, small, ovoid, sub-compressed, striate-ribbed, stalked, each with 

 a 1-sided enlarged open and leaf-like involucre. Shrubs or small trees 

 with obtusely and irregularly ridged trunks, a thin smooth ash-colored 

 bark, and flowers preceding the leaves. 



1. C. America'na, MX. Leaves ovate-oblong, doubly serrate ; involu- 

 cres 3-lobed, sub-hastate, unequally cut -toothed on one side. 

 AMERICAN CARPINUS. Horn-beam. Iron Wood. Water Beech. 



Stem 10 - 20 feet high , often branched from the root, and growing in clusters. Leaves 

 2-4 inches long ; petioles %-% an inch in length. Pistillate aments 2-3 inches long. 

 Involucres finally about an inch long. Nuts about 8-ribbed, smoothish, dark brown. 



Margins of streams, &c. : common. Fl. April. Fr. Sept. 



