have stuck his staff into the ground, which immediately shot forth, and blossomed. By some credulous persons, this tree was long thought to put forth its blossoms annually on Christmas day; but this deceit has now lost its credit, even with the ignorant.

CORYLIDEÆ.

HAZEL-NUT TREE.

CORYLUS.

MONECIA POLYANDRIA.

French, coudrier, noisetier; Italian, nocciolo.

THE Common Hazel, Corylus avellana, grows wild in many woods and coppices in England, where the fruit is gathered in great plenty by the country people, and sent to the London markets.

The trunk of the Hazel is covered with a whitish cloven bark, which is smooth on the branches, frequently of a bay colour, and spotted with white. The leaves are alternate, serrate or wrinkled, hairy on both sides, dark green above, a paler green on the under side; on very hairy round foot-stalks, about an inch long; on the lower side of the leaf is a white hairy midrib, from which proceed several white nerves, and between these is a kind of veiny net-work.

When this shrub is allowed time for growth, it will furnish poles twenty feet in length; but it is generally cut down long before it attains that height, for walkingsticks, fishing-rods, &c. The roots are used for inlaying or staining. When yeast is scarce, some persons twist the twigs of the Hazel, steep them in ale during its fermentation, and hang them up to dry; when they are put into the wort, either to assist, or supply the place of, the yeast. The chips are put into wine to purify it.

There are several varieties of the Hazel, the White

Filbert, the Red Filbert, the Cob, and the Clusternut. The White and Red Filbert are so named from the colour of the outer skin of the kernel. The Cob-nut is very round and large, and the Cluster-nut is produced in large bunches or clusters at the ends of the branches.

Swinburne informs us that Avellana is from Avellino, a city of Naples, in the neighbourhood of which the nuts are cultivated in great abundance; and that in favourable seasons it brings a profit of 60,000 ducats, or 11,250%. The nuts are principally the large round filbert, which we call the Spanish Filbert. These were originally imported into Italy from Pontus, and known to the Romans by the name of Nux Pontica; which was afterwards changed to Nux Avellana, from the place where they had been most successfully cultivated.

Evelyn has a very singular passage concerning the Hazel: after recounting a variety of purposes for which it is well adapted, he continues--

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Lastly, for riding-switches and divinatory-rods for the detecting and finding out of minerals (at least, if that tradition be no imposture); it is very wonderful, by whatever occult virtue, the forked stick (so cut, and skilfully held) becomes impregnated with those invisible steams and exhalations, as by its spontaneous bending from a horizontal posture, to discover not only mines, and subterraneous treasure, and springs of water, but criminals guilty of murder, &c.; made out so solemnly, and the effects thereof, by the attestation of magistrates, and divers other learned and credible persons (who have critically examined matters of fact), is certainly next to miracle, and requires a strong faith. Let the curious, therefore, consult that philosophical treatise of Dr. Valle

mont, which will at least entertain them with a world of surprising things.

"But now after all, the most signal honour it was ever employed in, and which might deservedly exalt this humble and common plant above all the trees of the wood, is that of hurdles,—not for that it is generally used in the folding of our innocent sheep, an emblem of the church, but for making the walls of one of the first Christian oratories in the world, and particularly in this island, that venerable and sacred fabric of Glastonbury, founded by Joseph of Arimathea; which is storied to have been first composed of a few hazel-rods interwoven about certain stakes driven in the ground: and walls of this kind instead of laths and puncheons, superinduced with a coarse mortar made of loam and straw, do to this day enclose divers humble cottages, sheds, and outhouses in the country."

The first part of this quotation is certainly rather extraordinary, but the most extraordinary thing about it is, that such a man should relate it in a manner so serious : this tale might indeed have pleased the active faith of Sir Thomas Browne. It may probably remind the reader of Captain Stedman's mode of discovering theft among his negroes, informing them that the guilty person's nose would very shortly be adorned with a sprouting feather; then secretly watching their actions, and detecting the person by observing him constantly putting his hand to his nose to learn if the proof of his guilt had yet made its appearance there*.

Speaking of the nuts, Evelyn says, "They are brought

See Stedman's Surinam, vol. ii.

among other fruit to the best tables for dessert, and are said to fatten, but too much eaten are obnoxious to the asthmatic. In the mean time of this I have had experience, that Hazel-nuts, but the Filbert especially, being full ripe, and peeled in warm water (as they blanch almonds) make a pudding very little, if at all, inferior to that our ladies make of almonds."

The following passage is interesting to an admirer of Evelyn :

"I do not," says he, "confound the filbert Pontic, or filberd distinguished by its beard, with our foresters, or bald Hazel-nuts, which doubtless we had from abroad, and bearing the names of Avelan, Avelin; as I find in some ancient records and deeds in my custody, where my ancestors' names were written Avelan, alias Evelin, generally."

He observes that the Hazel " prospers well where quarries of freestone lie underneath, as at Hazelbury in Wilts; Hazeling-field in Cambridgeshire; Hazlemere in Surrey, and other places." The places here mentioned are evidently named from the Hazel.

The spreading roots of the Hazel are reckoned very mischievous in a vineyard :

"Neve inter vites corylum sere."

VIRGIL, Georgic ii.

"Plant no hazels among your vines.”

The goat also is an enemy to the vineyard, and on that account was sacrificed by the Romans to Bacchus ; and the entrails were roasted on hazel spits. They used hazel twigs to bind the vines.

Thomson, describing the birds preparing nests for their young, says,