BIRCH FAMILY 



ing that the fruit wears a helmet. That which finally 

 forms this leafy helmet or involucre around the nut, 

 exists around the young ovary as a little girdle of two 

 tiny scales with fringed margins. 



BEAKED HAZEL-NUT 



Corylus rostrata. 



Two to six feet high, growing in clumps and in thickets. 

 Ranges from Nova Scotia to British Columbia, south to Georgia 

 and Tennessee, west to Kansas and Oregon. Suckers freely. 



Stems. Recent shoots yellowish brown, densely hairy or 

 smooth ; older branches darker brown and rough, stems dark 

 brown. 



Leaves. Alternate, simple, pinnately veined, veins depressed 

 above, very prominent beneath, two to four inches long, ovate, 

 oblong-ovate, or obovate, heart-shaped or rounded at base, irreg- 

 ularly and somewhat doubly serrate, acute or acuminate at apex. 

 When full grown are bright green, hairy or smooth above, paler 

 and sparingly hairy or very downy below. In autumn they 

 turn bright yellow. Petioles short, terete, smooth. 



Flowers. April, May, before the leaves ; monoecious. Stami- 

 nate aments very similar to those of Corylus americana. Pistil- 

 late flowers cluster in a scaly bud and bristle with crimson 

 threadlike stigmas. 



Fruit. Nut ovoid, somewhat compressed, pale brown. In- 

 volucre composed of two bristly, hairy bractlets united to the 

 summit and lengthened into a tubular beak about twice the length 

 of the nut ; tube minutely grooved, fringed at the summit, and 

 densely hairy. As the nut ripens the involucre becomes a pale 

 yellow brown varying to a rich reddish brown ; kernel sweet. 



The marked character of the Beaked Hazel-nut is 

 the involucre which surrounds the nut. It certainly 

 suggests a narrow long-necked bottle with the nut 

 snugly packed inside. As these involucres mature 



454 



