ADDISONIA . 25 
(Plate 173) 
CORYLUS ROSTRATA 
Beaked Hazel-nut 
Native of North America 
Family BETULACEAE Birrcu Family 
Corylus rostrata Ait. Hort. Kew. 3: 364. 1789. 
This is one of the two hazel-nuts found in the more temperate 
parts of North America. It is a shrub or, at most, a small tree, 
and loves banks of rivers and small streams or the moist valley 
where it thrives in the companionship of larger trees that protect 
it from the too ardent heat of the sun and from the too violent force 
of the wind. However modest and retiring it may be, it comes to 
life very early in spring, and puts forth its flowers long before its 
leaves. The flowers are of two kinds, catkins, long, slender, and 
graceful, providing abundant pollen for the small but none the less 
beautiful flowers that produce the nut. These are worthy of a 
closer examination with a small glass. The delicate greens and 
browns of the outer coverings form a most satisfactory contrast to 
the bright red stigmas spread out to catch a few of the many millions 
of pollen-grains blown about by the wind. 
The fruit, a small nut, is edible like its more common relative, 
the hazel-nut. It ripens in autumn and may be gathered about 
the time of the first frost. The beaked hazel-nut differs in appear- 
ance from the common hazel-nut on account of its outer covering 
which is extended into a long, somewhat curved beak. Two fruits 
always grow from one stem. The plant is quite widely distributed 
throughout the more temperate parts of North America, being 
found from Quebec to British Columbia, and as far south as the 
mountains of Georgia. 
he beaked hazel-nut is a shrub a small tree, with rather thin 
leaves, double toothed, smooth and dark green. The staminate 
flowers are borne in pendulous catkins, without sepals or petals, 
and with eight stamens, each of which has a one-celled anther. 
On the same twig, above the catkins, are borne the fertile or pistil- 
late flowers. ‘These are small, about a quarter of an inch in length. 
The calyx adheres to the ovary, and one of the lobes extends above 
it. The style is very short; the e stigmas are long and bright red. 
The cotyledons, which form the main substance of the nut, come 
