322 



WEEDS AND USEFUL PLANTS. 



finding", and water-smelling have been enabled, in some degree— even in 

 this " progressive " age — to keep pace with the sublime mysteries of 

 Clairvoyance, and Spiritual Kappings, as well as with the lucrative 

 manufacture of Panaceas, and Indian Specifics. It is indeed both hu- 

 miliating and discouraging to contemplate the facility with which a 

 large portion of mankind can be made the dupes of such miserable 

 trumpery. 



2. C. America 'na, Marshall. Leaves orbicular-cordate, acuminate ; 

 stipules ovate ; involucre ventricose-campanulate, much larger than the 

 nut, with the limb compressed, dilated, lacerately many-cleft. 



American Corylus. Hazle-uut. Wild Filbert. 



Shrub. Stem 4-6 feet higli, slender, branching, — the young branches virgate, pubes- 

 cent and glandular-hispid. Leaves 3-6 inches long, varying from roundish-cordate to 

 ovate and obovato, dentate-serrate, pubescent ; petioles one-fourth of an inch to an inch 

 long. Stipules ovate-lanceolate, caducous. Aments preceding the leaves, 1-2 inches long. 

 PisWZafe ^/Zoit'ers in pedunculate squamose clusters, — the scales finally enlarging, uniting 

 and forming the involucres of the nuts. A^ut subglobose, somewhat compressed at apex, 

 rather wider than long, finely pubescent, embraced by the subcoriaceous involucre, which 

 is twice as long as the nut, glandular-hirsute externally, ventricose at base, with the hmb 

 bilabiate and irregularly lacerate-dentate. 



Borders of thickets, fence-rows, &c. : throughout the United States. Ft. March -April. 

 F)\ Sept. 



Obs. This shrub is generally well known for its esculent seeds, though 

 I believe it has never been thought worth while to cultivate it. There 

 is another native species common northward, the Beaked Hazle-nut (C. 

 rostra'ta, ^it.), which has the involucre prolonged into a bristly beak 

 extending an inch beyond the nut. 



5. CARPI'NUS, X. Hornbeam. 



[The ancient classical name.] 



Staminate Fl. in lateral drooping aments with simple ovate scale-like 

 bracts, without a proper calyx. Stamens 12 at the base of each bract ; 

 anthers 1-celled, hairy at apex. Pistillate Fl. in pairs, with small de- 

 cidaous bracts and enlarging foliaceous 1-sided involucres, arranged in ie,v- 

 mm^lXoo&Q ament-like racemes. Ouar^/ 2-celled. Stigmas 2, ^idovm. Nuts 

 in pairs, small, ovoid, sub-compressed, striate-ribbed, stalked, each with 

 a 1-sided enlarged open and leaf-like involucre. Shrubs or small trees 

 with obtusely and irregularly ridged trunks, a thin smooth ash-colored 

 baric, and flowers preceding the leaves. 



1. C. America 'na, Mx. Leaves ovate-oblong, doubly serrate ; involu- 

 cres 3-lobed, sub-hastate, unequally cut toothed on one side. 

 American Carpinus. Horn-beam. Iron Wood. Water Beech. 



iS^fem. 10 - 20 feet high , of ten branched from the root, and growing in clusters. Leaves 

 2 -4: inches long ; petioles an inch in length. Pistillate aments 2-3 inches long. 



Involucres finally about an inch long. Nuts about 8-ribbed, smoothish, dark brown. 



Margins of streams, &c. : common. Fl. April. Fr. Sept. 



