32 



Introduction to Botany. 



1. Ostrya Virginica, Willd. American Hop Hornbeam. Leaves sharply 

 doubly serrate; tubular bractlets bristly hairy at the base. Nutletj flattened and 

 shining. In rich woods. 



IV. CORYLUS. Hazelnut or Filbert. 

 (The classical Latin name.) 



Shrubs or small trees, with broad, thin leaves serrulate or incised. 

 Staminate flowers of about 4 stamens, solitary, in the axil of each bract 

 of the staminate aments, which terminate the shoots of the previous 

 year; filaments 2-forked, each fork bearing an anther sac. Pistillate 

 flowers clustered at the end of short branches of the current season, 

 each flower consisting of a calyx adnate to an incompletely 2-celIed 

 ovary, which is surmounted by a short style and 2 slender stigmas. 

 Fruit, a large bony nut, inclosed in 2 foliaceous or coriaceous bractlets, 

 which are closely adherent and often grown together at the lacerated 

 margins. 



I. Corylus Americana, Walt. Hazelnut. Shrubs with ovate or broadly 

 oval leaves, glabrous above and tomentose beneath. Bractlets compressed beyond 

 the apex of the nut, and laciniate along the margins. In thickets. 



a. Corylus rostrata, Ait. (L., rostratus, beaked.) BEAKED Hazelnut. 

 Shrubs with nearly glabrous ovate or narrowly oval leaves, with margins incised- 



serrate and serrulate. Bractlets 

 prolonged beyond the nut into a 

 long, tubular, laciniate beak. In 

 thickets. 



V. QUERCUS. Oak. 



(The classical Latin name.) 



Trees or shrubs. Flowers 

 appearing before or with the 

 leaves. Staminate flowers of 

 a 2-8-parted or lobed calyx 

 and 3-12 stamens. Pistillate 

 flowers solitary or somewhat 

 clustered, subtended by a 

 scaly involucre, which be- 

 comes a hard cup in the fruit. 

 Ovary nearly 3-celled, with 2 

 ovules in each cell, becoming 

 usually a i-celled and i-seeded 

 acorn or nut. (Fig. 347.) 



Diagrams of the flowers of an oak. x, stami- 

 nate flower; y, pistillate flower; <i, longitudi- 

 nal diagram of a pistillate flower. — After 

 Strasburger. 



