256 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 



for driving cattle, being cognate with Koiranos, a 

 commander, in Greek. Hazel is from the Anglo- 

 Saxon haes, a behest or order, a stick used to enforce 

 orders. 



One may find the Hazel in all parts of the British 

 Isles and in the Channel Islands. It is found at an 

 altitude of nearly 2000 ft. in the Highlands. 



Woods, thickets, hedges, are the habitats of the 

 Hazel. It is found on clays and loams in the damp 

 oakwood forming a coppice, on siliceous soils in 

 sessile oakwoods, on limestone in ashwoods, on 

 limestone on limestone pavements, in chalk scrub 

 on chalk, in ash-oakwoods on marls and calcareous 

 sandstones, on upland moors in peat-remains. 



A shrub in habit, the Hazel may grow to the size 

 of a small tree, but when coppiced is generally 

 tufted, with numerous branches, radiating from the 

 short stools. It is glandular and downy. 



At Eastwell Park, Kent, trees, 30 ft. high with a 

 girth of 3 ft., are found. 



The leaves are rounded, heart-shaped, in two rows, 

 unequal below, plaited parallel to the midrib in bud, 

 doubly toothed, or with slight lobes, coarse and 

 downy both sides, with a long, narrow point. The 

 young twigs are glandular and hairy. The leaf-stalk 

 is short. The stipules are oblong, blunt. 



The plant is monoecious. The male flowers are in 

 cylindrical, long catkins, which are in a raceme, droop- 

 ing, with three-lobed bracts. The female flowers are 

 in nearly stalkless heads, ovoid, scaly, bud-like. The 



