172 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



bony shell of a light brown color, roughish at base, where it 

 adheres, while immature, to its cap. This is an involucre pf 

 two broad leaves, much larger than the nut, green and fleshy 

 when young, inflated at base, covered with coarse, glandular 

 hair, deeply and irregularly cut, fringed on the compressed bor- 

 der, and turning grayish brown, when mature. 



The hazel grows readily in dry, or moist, light soil, by the 

 sides of woods or walls. The fruit varies much in quality in 

 different places. In taste, it is fully equal to the filbert, and by 

 many persons it is preferred. The finest specimens of it are 

 equal to the filbert in size; if these were selected, and carefully 

 cultivated, they would, as all other fruits have been found to 

 do, with similar treatment, improve in quality. In England, 

 the filbert is much cultivated, and is sometimes a very produc- 

 tive crop. Miller says that its qualities can only be preserved 

 by propagating by suckers, or layers. The same methods might 

 be used for our hazel. By selecting the largest, finest, arid ear- 

 liest nuts, sowing them in the most propitious soil, and selecting 

 from those plants which soonest come to bearing, the most pro- 

 mising nuts, for seed, and thus constantly repeating the opera- 

 tion, the size, productiveness, and flavor of the fruit would, 

 doubtless, be greatly improved. The improved varieties might 

 be easily propagated by suckers, of which it is the nature of 

 the hazel to throw out great numbers. 



There are many road sides and borders of fields which might 

 be planted with the hazel, from whence, with little expense, a 

 desirable addition to the table might be raised, which children 

 could be employed to gather. Hazel-gathering is, even now, in 

 some parts of New England, a pleasant little festival for child- 

 ren; and the remembrances of the nooks among the woods, 

 and the thickets along the river banks, to which the search for 

 nuts leads, are not unwelcome, in graver and busier years. 



The common hazel is found from Canada to Florida, and 

 through the Western States. 



The plant is too small to be of much service, though it may 

 possibly have as much virtue as the European species of which 

 Evelyn writes : " The coals are used by painters to draw with, 

 like those of sallow : lastly, for riding switches, and divinatory 



