BETULACEAE 



BIRCH FAMILY 



HAZELNUT 



Corylus atnericana Walt. 



The Birch family is made up entirely of trees and 

 shrubs, and includes also the Birch, Alder, Blue Beech 

 and Ironwood. The Hazelnut is not a wild flower but a 

 fine early spring-bloom- 

 ing shrub which might 

 well be used more ex- 

 tensively as an ornamen- 

 tal plant. It is easily 

 grown, adapts itself ad- 

 mirably to hedges, and 

 the fruits are as tasty as 

 imported Filberts, 

 though smaller. 

 The Hazelnut grows 

 3-12 feet tall along fence 

 rows, forest borders and 

 similar places in moist and 

 dry situations from Maine 

 to Saskatchewan, south to 

 Florida and Oklahoma. It 

 blooms in March and April 

 and the nuts are ripe in September and October. 



The finely toothed leaves are oval or ovate, with tips acute 

 or acuminate, smooth or nearly so above and finely hairy be- 

 neath, and 3-6 inches long. Stiff pinkish hairs cover the young 

 shoots but the twigs become smooth. 



The flowers are monoecious. In early spring the staminate 

 flower is produced in a pendulous catkin which was formed late 

 in the preceding fall. There are 4 stamens and 2 bractlets which 

 are more or less attached to the scale of the catkin. Each stamen 

 is split in such a way that there appear to be 8 stamens with 

 i-celled anthers. 



The pistillate flowers are borne, several in a cluster, from 

 scaly buds at the ends of short branches. Each consists of i 

 pistil with a 5-lobed calyx grown fast to the ovary. The style 

 is short and there are 2 red stigmas. Surrounding the flower are 2 

 bractlets, enlarged in truit and forming the husklike covering ot 

 the nut. 



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