THE WALNUT. 431 



main leaf-stalks are set variously at acute, obtuse, or right angles on 

 the twig, and are much swollen at the point where they join the 

 twig. In the upper part of the swelling there is a recess neatly 

 hollowed out in which nestles the new bud. The leaves are arranged 

 singly (not in pairs) on the twig. 



MALE CATKINS . 



The male and temale flowers are borne on the same tree though 

 placed apart. 



The male catkins are produced in the axils of the leaves, and 

 by the end of the year their resemblance to little cones makes them 

 conspicuous on the bare twigs. They stand away from the twig, and 

 the diagonal cross lines with which they are marked, as well as their 

 form, distinguish them at once from the fuller-shaped leaf-buds. 



By the middle of April, when the leaf-buds are just bursting, the 

 catkins are nearly an inch long — tapering, cone-shaped, and covered 

 with little triangular scales. Their colour is a dull but not dark 

 green. They now stand well out from the twig, a month later and 

 they have grown to nearly two inches in length, and expanded to 

 half an inch in diameter, and now begin to bend over. Meanwhile 

 the leaf-buds have produced new shoots, with their complement of 

 half-grown leaves and withering stipules. The catkins soon become 

 pendulous, and covered with bright yellow pollen. 



The catkins consist of a main axis, to which are attached on all 

 -ides numerous bracts. Fused to each bract are five scales enclosing 

 a group of many stamens. The five scales might be more correctly 

 described as three perianth leave;-, (sometimes two or four) and two 

 lateral lirat teoles. 



