178 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
The leaves are three or four inches long, and two wide, 
oblong ovate or elliptical, heart-shaped at base, beautifully ta- 
pering to a long point, unequally and sharply serrate, smooth 
above, paler and somewhat hairy, particularly at the axils and 
along the veins, beneath, thin, of a delicate texture, and sitting 
on very short, often hairy footstalks. In autumn, the leaves 
assume various shades of orange brown, or yellowish brown, 
and russet. 
The barren flowers, which expand in May, at the same time 
with the leaves, or just before, are in cylindrical, pendulous cat- 
‘kins, one or two inches long, of a tawny, brown, or purple 
color, at the ends of the twigsof the last year. ‘The scales of 
which they are formed are very short, broad ovate, acuminate, 
thickly ciliate, and hairy at the base within. The stamens are 
twelve or more, one-celled, bearded at tip, resting, near their 
base, on short, irregularly branched, hair-like filaments. 
The fertile flowers come from the same bud with the leaves, 
so that they are at last at the end of a leafy branch. ‘lus bud 
is enclosed by several scales, and each leaf, plaited and folded 
together within, has at its base a pair of thin, pointed, striate, 
stipular scales, which soon fall. The leaves and the minute 
branches are invested with bristle-like hairs. Above the leaves 
are the slender catkins, half an inch long, made up of very 
hairy, long, pointed scales, which soon fall off. Within them 
are the smaller but more permanent scales which protect the 
future fruit. Several of the lower ones contain nothing. The 
upper ones protect each two sacks, conical at base, and ending 
in cylindrical, hairy tubes, from which project the two hair-like, 
purple or red stigmas, surmounting the enclosed ovary. At the 
period of the bursting of the anthers, the female catkin is three 
or four tenths of an inchin length. This rapidly enlarges, and, 
at maturity, is an inch, or sometimes two or three inches long, 
and of half that width. This compound fruit is a collection of 
follicles, resembling a hop, erect, finally pendulous, on a club- 
shaped, hairy stalk of the same length, terminating the branch- 
lets, and a conspicuous ornament in July and after. The seed- 
vessels, to the number of twelve to twenty, are aggregated in 
pairs. Each is an ovate, flattened, membranaceous, veined, 
