228 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 54 



even though he did not use. those terms; and thus, if corylus failed' 

 ever to deck itself with corollas, the next thing in order would be 

 to scrutinize the shrubs in quest of the Theophrastan "capillary"' 

 flowers. In such a quest as this Tragus was successful; and since he- 

 is the first to actually describe the fertile flowers of Corylus Avellana, 

 his words have such historic value that we must quote them: 



" All kinds of corylus have diminutive red flowers, resembling the 

 very short stamens of a crocus, which they display just before 

 the unfolding of thei^ leaves. It is in the month of February 

 that those aments which some erroneously suppose to be the flowers, 

 acquire their yellow coloring. Theophrastus in the sixth chapter 

 of his third book of the History of Plants makes mention of the 

 proper flowers of corylus; nevertheless Leonard Fuchs and John 

 Ruelle, besides some others, persistently deny that corylus has ever 

 any flowers ; a thing which beyond doubt they would not have done, 

 had they ever once looked into the book of nature on the subject." ' 



After so signal a contribution to the anthology of the hazel, and 

 especially after such public castigation of Fuchsius and Ruellius^ 

 it was fateful that Tragus should err, and that ridiculously, in his- 

 philosophy of alder blossoms. Here, having denied that hazel 

 aments are flowers, he is confident as can be that alder aments are 

 true flowers ; and he proves it in this wise : " The alder, at least when 

 full grown, adorns itself in spring with brownish flowers, almost like 

 those of the birch and the beech; but they do not fall off, as we 

 have observed that they do in the beech, but are permanent, and 

 come to be drawn together so that they at length acquire something 

 like the configuration of an olive. And this is the fruit of the alder ^ 

 which matures ait the end of summer, and then falling sows itself, 

 so that by this means new alder trees are produced." ^ After- 

 wards in giving account of the flowering and fruiting of birches he 

 betrays the same innocence of the real origin and history of the 

 small seed-bearing cones^ ; inferring that they had been produced by 

 a final contractingand thickening of the pendulous staminate tassels, 

 A less erratic and more logical mind would not have been con- 

 tent with affirming that the loose pendulous aments of birch and 

 alder are real flowers, and at the same time denying that the very 

 similar ones of hazel have anything at all of the nature of flowers. 

 Yet when it comes to the oaks. Tragus must again be given a 

 credit mark as having detected, next after Theophrastus, their very 



'Tragus, Stirp. Comm., p. 1095. 

 'Ibid., p. 1085. 

 ' Ibid., p. II 14. 



