364 COB FILBERTS. [RIakch, 



this purpose, the plan adopted at Calcot is set forth ; also that 

 adopted by the growers in Kent, and the management described by 

 Loudon in his Suburban Horticulturist, so that the reader will get 

 an enlarged view of the subject, and use the information to suit his 

 plantation. 



Subjoined are Mr. Cooper's remarks : — ► 



* The word filbert is a corruption of the words " full beards," or 

 nuts with full beards, to distinguish them from the common nut, and 

 hence became corrupted to fillbeard and filberd, and finally to filbert. 



'In the natural system, the tree belongs to Amentacecz, which 

 includes all plants which have their male flowers arranged in aments, 

 or what are commonly called catkins, which are very conspicuous on 

 this tree during winter. The female flowers appear at the extremities 

 of buds, are very small, and of a bright purple colour. 



' The common nut is a native of Britain and of all the temperate 

 parts of Europe and Asia ; it is also common in North America. It 

 is, however, almost as different from the cultivated filbert as the wild 

 apple is from the cultivated one. 



' The oil expressed from the common nut is little inferior to oil of 

 almonds. It has drying properties and is used by the painters, as 

 also by chemists as a basis with which to mix expensive fragrant oils, 

 and it has been employed medicinally in coughs. The charcoal made 

 of the wood is used by painters in drawing. 



' Filberts are much more easily digested than the common nuts of our 

 woods, and indeed are very useful in relieving attacks of indigestion 

 and headache. They should, however, never be eaten with wine or 

 other alcoholic stimulants. 



* Propagation. — The filbert may be propagated by laying the young; 

 wood, or by grafting them upon stocks of the common nut. When 

 done by the latter mode the operation should be performed in February 

 or March, in consequence of the early rising of the sap. 



'It is a curious fact that they seldom ever come true when 

 propagated by seed — not one in a hundred as a rule being worth 

 anything, and a great loss of time has to be incurred in waiting for 

 the fruit. 



^'Pruning and Training. — Perhaps there is no tree the pruning and 

 training of which is so little understood. Consult what autho.r you 

 may, it will be ditticult to find any definite or indeed rational rules- 

 laid down for pruning this tree. Mr. Williamson has, however, given, 

 an account of tlie Maidstone practice, and which is to the following, 

 effect : — " The trees are trained with shirt stems, like gooseberry 

 bushes, but with the heads in the shape of a punch bowl,^ and 

 exceedingly thin of wood ; and are pruned with an exact attention 

 to the mode of bearing. This authority advises to plant the trees- 



