II. 4. THE BEAKED HAZEL. 173 



rods for the detecting and finding out of minerals ; at least, if 

 that tradition be no imposture." 



The Beaked Hazel. C. Rosirata. Aiton. 

 This is a somewhat smaller shrub than the common hazel, 



being from two to six feet in height, and it is of much less fre- 

 quent occurrence. Yet there are few country towns in which 

 the boys are not acquainted with the taste of its nuts. The 

 recent shoots are brown and smooth, sprinkled with a few 

 gray dots. The older branches are rough and darker, and the 

 stem a grayish brown. The leaves are on very short, nearly 

 smooth footstalks, pear-shaped, narrowed towards the base, 

 and heart-shaped, ending in a point, doubly and irregularly 

 serrate, smooth above, somewhat downy or hairy beneath. The 

 nut is small and roundish, enclosed in a bristly husk which fits 

 its shape at the base, but is lengthened into a jagged beak at 

 the extremity, like a narrow, long-necked bottle. By this it is 

 easily distinguished from the common hazel, as well as by the 

 inferiority in the size and quality of the nuts. These grow on 

 the ends of the branches, in bunches of two to eight or nine ; 

 most of which never come to perfection. 



This is a northern species. Dr. Richardson found it in Can- 

 ada, as far north as the Saskatchewan. On the highest moun- 

 tains of the Alleghany range, it occurs in the southwestern part 

 of the country. 



Messrs. Prince, of Long Island, found that the European hazel 

 grows perfectly well in our climate ; a single bush annually 

 producing half a bushel of filberts. 



The Constantinople hazel is a tree of sometimes fifty or sixty 

 feet in height. 



