Cupultfera—Corylus. 413 
Hazel, enters so largely into the composition of our copses and 
plantations, that it deserves mentioning here. From this have 
sprung the varieties producing the Spanish, Filbert, Cob, and 
other nuts. There is also a variety in which the large leaves 
have a purplish blotch in the centre. 
Orper CVIL—MYRICACEZ. 
Shrubs or small trees, usually covered with resinous glands 
or dots. Leaves simple, alternate, with or without stipules. 
Flowers moncecious or dicecious, in simple or compound catkins. 
Perianth none. Stamens 2 to 16, in the axil of each bract. 
Ovary surrounded by hypogynous scales. Fruit drupaceous, 
often clothed with fragrant waxy secretions, 1-celled, 1-seeded ; 
seed erect. A small order limited to one genus by some 
botanists, and divided into two by others; the species number 
ing between twenty and thirty. 
1, MYRICA (including Comptonia). 
Characterised as above. The name pupicn was applied by 
the ancients to the Tamarisk or some other sweet-scented shrub. 
The species occur in North and South America, South Africa, 
Atlantic Islands, and Europe. 
1. M. Gale. Sweet Gale, Bog-Myrtle, or Sweet Willow.— 
This is the only European species, and it is also a native of 
Britain. Itis a dwarf fragrant shrub from 2 to 4 feet high 
with deciduous linear lanceolate-obovate toothed or entire ex- 
stipulate leaves from 2 to 3 inches long. Male and female 
flowers in separate catkins on the same individual, appearing 
before the leaves; male catkins clustered. Found in boggy 
places and on moors. 
2. M. cerifera. Candleberry, Bayberry, or Wax Myrtle.— 
A small shrub about 4 to 6 feet high with oblong or obovate- 
lanceolate entire or sinuately toothed exstipulate leaves and 
scattered male catkins. A native of North America. 
3. M. asplenifolia, syn. Comptonia asplenifolia. Sweet 
Fern.—A somewhat straggling irregularly branched small 
shrub with linear lanceolate pinnatifid stipulate slightly hairy 
leaves; lobes crowded, rounded. This is the prettiest and 
most interesting of the hardy species, growing about 3 feet 
high, and producing its inconspicuous flowers a little before the 
leaves. North America. 
