and frequently staminate and pistillate (mo- 

 noecious) flowers. Barren flowers (stami- 

 nate) in catkins ; stamens five to twenty, 

 inserted in the base of scales, or of a mem- 

 branous valvate perianth. Fertile flowers 

 (pistillate) aggregate, or in a spike. Ovary 

 with several cells, enclosed in an involucre 

 or cup (cupule) ; ovules in pairs or solitary ; 

 stigmas, several. Fruit a nut with a husk or 

 cup ; seed solitary, without albumen. The 

 plants abound in the forests of temperate 

 regions in the form of oaks, hazels, beeches, 

 and chestnuts. They afford valuable tim- 

 ber and edible seeds, and their bark is as- 

 tringent. Quercus includes the various 

 species of oak,which are well characterised 

 by their acorns. Liebman says that there 

 are 230 species of oaks known, belonging 

 chiefly to the Northern Hemisphere. To 

 the south of the Line they occur in the 

 Sunda Islands. They are not met with in 

 the temperate zone of the Southern Hemi- 

 sphere. Quercus pedunculata or Hobur is 

 the common British oak, which has usually 

 stalked acorns. Q. sessilifiora is the Dur- 

 mast with sessile fruit, which by some is 

 reckoned only a variety of the former. 

 The Durmast furnishes the best timber. 

 In the common oak the medullary rays are 

 large and the wood is easily rent ; in the 

 Durmast the rays are small and the wood 

 not easily rent. Common oak taken from 

 a ship broke under an average weight of 

 931 lbs., only bending 4J inches ; while 

 Durmast from the same ship broke with 

 an average weight of 1,032 lbs., and de- 

 flected 5| inches before breaking. Durmast 

 grows faster than common oak, and it was 

 used in many ancient buildings, as in 

 Glasgow Cathedral. The cups of Quercus 

 Jdjihips are used by dyers under the name 

 of valonia. The outer bark of Quercus Suber 

 supplies cork. Corylus Avellaiia, the com- 

 mon hazel, yields excellent charcoal for 

 drawing. Fag us sylvatica, the beech, and 

 C«rtanea vulgaris, the Spanish chestnut, are 

 cultivated for timber. Castanea chryso- 

 pjiylla is the golden chestnut from Oregon. 

 There are eight or nine known genera, and 

 about 280 species. Illustrative genera:— 

 Corylus, Carpinus, Fagus, Castanea, Quer- 

 cus. [J. H. B.] 



CORTLOPSIS. The name of a genus 

 belonging to the order of Witch-hazels, 

 characterised by the calyx being adherent 

 to the ovary, and divided above into five 

 unequal pieces; corolla of five pieces, 

 broadest upwards ; filaments or stalks of 

 the stamens awl-shaped and free ; five short 

 scales in the spaces between the stamens; 

 styles or appendages on the ovary two in 

 number, each thickest at the base, and 

 ending in a round head or stigma. The 

 name is derived from the Greek, and means 

 'Hazel-like,' indicating the general habit 

 of the species, which are shrubs, natives of 

 Japan, with alternate stalked leaves, heart- 

 shaped or entire at the base and of short 

 duration ; the flowers are yellow. [G. D.] 



CORYLUS. A small tree belonging to 

 the Corylacece, and under the name of 

 Hazel too well known to need any state- 



ment of the characters by which it may be 

 identified. The usual form of the Hazel in 

 its wild state is a straggling bush consist- 

 ing of a number of long flexible stems 

 from the same root. The bark on the young 

 branches is ash-coloured and hairy, that on 

 the old stems mottled with bright brown 

 and gray. C. Avellana includes not only 

 the hazel, but all the European varieties 

 of filbert and cobnut. Among the wild 

 animals which feed on these nuts the most 

 destructive are the squirrel, which carries 

 them off for a winter hoard, or demolishes 

 them on the spot, splitting the shell into 

 two halves ; the dormouse, which climbs 

 the trees, and nibbles a round even hole, ex- 

 tracting the contents piece-meal ; and the 

 nuthatch, a bird not much bigger than 

 a sparrow, belonging to the tribe Scan- 

 sores, which carries them off singly, and 

 fixing them in the crevice of an oak or 

 some other rough-barked tree takes his 

 position above, and, head downwards, ham- 

 mers away with his strong beak until he 

 has made an irregular angular hole. Many 

 nuts are also rendered worthless by a beau- 

 tiful little beetle (Balaninus nucum), which 

 in early summer lays within the tender 

 shell of a nut a single egg, which when the 

 kernel is approaching maturity is hatched 

 into a small grub. This, when the period 

 of transformation to the pupa state is ap- 

 proaching, eats its way through the shell, 

 and falling to the ground buries itself and 

 constructs a cell from which it comes forth 

 in the following season as a perfect insect. 

 The hazel is rarely found of sufficient size 

 to supply building materials, but the young 

 rods being tough and flexible are much 

 used for hoops,walking-sticks, fishing-rods, 

 &c. ; and from their smoothness and pleas- 

 ing colour they are well adapted.f or making 

 rustic seats and tables for summer-houses ; 

 they are also good fire-wood. The. charcoal 

 crayons used by artists for drawing outline 

 are also prepared from hazel-wood. A purple- 

 leaved variety to be obtained at the nurse- 

 ries is a great ornament to shrubberies. 

 Other species occasionally cultivated in 

 England are C. tubulosa from Europe, 

 C. americana and rostrata from America, 

 and C. Colurna from Turkey. French, 

 Noisetier; German, Haselstande. [C. A. J.] 



The name of Avellana is said by Pliny, 

 according to Prof. Targioni, to be derived 

 from Abellina in Asia, supposed to be the 

 Valley of Damascus, its native country. 

 He adds that it had been brought into 

 Greece from Pontus, hence it was also 

 called Nux pontica. The nuts were called, 

 by Theophrastus, Heracleotic nuts, from 

 Heraclea, now Ponderachi, on the Asiatic 

 shores of the Black Sea. Others admit that 

 a variety of hazel nut or filbert was brought 

 from Pontus to Abella, a town in Campania, 

 and hence the name of Avellana was ap- 

 plied to these trees. In France, at the 

 present day, the better varieties are called 

 Avelines. But the above indications of an 

 Eastern origin can only refer to particular 

 kinds, for the species, it is well known, is 

 common enough in Italy, as well as in 

 other parts of Europe. It is also found over 



