228 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



are nearly the same, equally monoecious, precocious, and amen- 

 taceous. The stamens number from three to twenty in the axil of 

 the bracts of the male catkin (fig. 175) and are formed of a free 

 slender filament, bifurcate as Y, and an extrorse anther and cell, 

 surmounting each of the branches, longitudinally dehiscent.^ In 



Carpinus Beiulus. 



Fig. 176. Female flowering branch. 



Fig. 179. Fructiferous branch. 



the female catkin long and slender (fig. 176), the alternate caducous 

 bracts correspond to two flowers (fig. 177, 178) which occupy each 

 the axil of a lateral bract. This, unlike that of the Hazels^ persisting 

 and growing beside the fruit, does not completely envelope it and 

 remains foliaceous, rigid, trilobed^ (fig. 179, 180). The ovary, 

 surmounted by a small dentate calyx and a style similar to that of 

 the Nuts, has the same organization and is finally divided into two 

 cells by two placentae at first parietal, each also bearing one or two 



^ The summit is ordinarily surmounted by a 

 tuft of hairs. The pollen is similar to that of 

 Corylns, (H. Mohl). 



^ The same is the case in C. japonica Bl. cor- 

 data Bl. laxijiora' Bl. {Mxis. Lngd. Bat. i, 308), 

 of which has been made the genus Distegocnrpus 



(SiEB. et Zucc. Fl. Jap. Fam. Nat. ii. 102. t. 3 ; 

 — A. DC. Prodr. 127), and which appears to us 

 ought to form only a section (with sublobate 

 fruit) of the genus Carpinus, A kind of small 

 roundish ligule is seen within the secondary 

 bracts. 



