Corylus.] AMENTACEffi. 467 



pidate, the middle point running down into a keel along each face of the drupe. 

 Seed erect, obovate, pointed at the upper end, which is produced into the central 

 cusp. 



Individuals of ihis species are said occasionally to be monoecious. Like many 

 other dioecious plants, the male is commonly the more abundant. 



The wood of the Sweet Gale is quite inodorous, but the leaves emit, when 

 bruised, an agreeable spicy fragrance, partaking of ginger and clove with a mix- 

 ture of bitter aroma, which, to^jether with its peculiar willow-like aspect, readily 

 account for the names it bears in this island. It is far more generally distri- 

 buted in the N. of England and Scotland than with us, but attains to greater 

 dimensions in this island than I have ever seen it elsewhere, and occasionally 

 assuming a more vivid green, when it has at a little distance somewhat the 

 appearance of small bushes of Arbutus Unedo. 



Tribe IV. Cupdliferje, Lindl. 



" Male floiver in a catkin. Female flower solitary or aggregated 

 or spiked. Perigone adnate to the ovary, ivith a denticulated limb, 

 sometimes evanescent, surrounded by a coriaceous involucre." — 

 Lindl. Syn. 



VI. CoETLUs, Linn. Hazel. 



" Barren flowers in a cylindrical catkin : its scales 3-cleft, mid- 

 dle lobe covering the 2 lateral ones. Perianth 0, except the 2 

 inner collateral scales of the catkin, which cohere at their base to 

 the outer one (or true scale). Stamens 3. Anthers 1-celled. — 

 Fertile floicers 1 — 2 together within a minute involucre of 2 — 3 

 cohering lacerated hairy scales, the whole collected into a short 

 gemmaceous bracteated catkin. Perianth closely investing the 

 ovary, and scarcely distinguishable from it. Stigmas 2, filiform. 

 Nut invested with the enlarged, united scales of the involucre, 

 which are coriaceous at the base, and leafy and laciniated at the 

 summit." — Br. Fl. 



1. C. Avellana, L. Common Hazel. " Stipules oblong obtuse, 

 leaves roundish-cordate pointed, involucre about the length of the 

 fruit unarmed campanulate 2 — 3 partite rather spreading torn at 

 the margin."— Br. Fl. p. 404. E. B. t. 723. 



In woods and hedges ; abundantly. Fl. February, March. Fr. September, 

 October. Ij . 



A large shrub or small tree, with a smooth gray or partly reddish brown bark, 

 the tips of the branches and flowering shoots setose and downy. Slaminate cat- 

 kins pendulous, cylindrical, 2 — 4 inches long, 2, 3, or more together on short 

 lateral shoots, conspicuous in early spring by their pale greenish yellow colour ; 

 their scales wedge-shaped, downy, 3-lobed, the middle lobe largest and covering 

 the other two, with a small purplish point. Stamens mostly 8 ; anthers pale yel- 

 low, oblong, slightly hairy at the top, scattering a copious sulphur-yellow pollen. 

 Pistillate fiowers aggregated in solitary, sessile, remote, scaly buds, exactly like 

 those of the leaves, from which the protruded crimson stigmas alone distinguish 

 them. 



