BETULACE^E— BIRCH FAMILY 



HAZEL-NUT. AMERICAN HAZEL 



Corylus americana. 



The husk of the hazel resembles a cap ; whence its English 

 name from the Saxon /iaes/e, a cap ; its botanic name from 

 the Greek, corys, a helmet. 



Three to six feet high, growing in clumps and thickets in dry 

 or moist light soil at the edge of woods or beside walls. Ranges 

 from Maine and Ontario, south to Florida and Kansas. Suckers 

 freely. 



Stems. — Young shoots russet-brown, densely hispid-pubescent 

 with pinkish hairs, the twig finally becoming smooth ; stem 

 dark brown. 



Leaves. — Alternate, simple, pinnately veined, three to six 

 inches long, ovate or broadly oval, heart-shaped or rounded at 

 base, irregularly and somewhat doubly serrate, acute or acumi- 

 nate at apex. When full grown are dark yellow green, nearly 

 smooth above, pale green and finely tomentose beneath. In au- 

 tumn they turn a dull yellow. Petioles short, terete, glandular- 

 hairy. Stipules large, acute, toothed, fugitive. 



Flowers. — March, April, before the leaves ; monoecious. 

 Staminate aments borne in the axils of last year's leaves along 

 the stem toward the end ; when mature are slender, cylin- 

 drical, tremulous catkins, three to four inches long, terminal or 

 dependent from lateral foot stalks, solitary or rarely clustered. 

 The flowers, solitary in the axil of each bract, consist of four 

 stamens and two bractlets ; filaments are two-cleft, each fork 

 bearing an anther-sac. Pistillate flowers are little star-like tufts 

 of crimson stigmas, projecting above a short scaly bud of many 



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