amentifertE. 173 



novel' tliat lie was the father of slanders ; or are men's tongues so given to slandering 

 one another, that they must slander nuts too, to keep their tongues in use ? K any- 

 thing of the hazel-nut be stopping, 'tis the husks and shells, and nobody is so mad to 

 eat them, unless physically, and the red skin which covers the kernel, which you may 

 easily pull off. And thus I have made an apology for nuts, which cannot speak for 

 themselves." 



In its wild state the hazel affords protection and food to many little wild animals 

 and birds. The squirrel and dormouse feed on the nuts with avidity. The nut- 

 hatch, a bird not larger than the sparrow, belonging to the tribe Scansores, carries 

 them off singly, and fixes them in the crevice of an oak or some other rough-barked 

 tree, taking his position above, and head downwards, hammers away with his strong 

 beak until he has made an irregular angular hole. Many nuts are made utterly 

 worthless by a beautiful Httle beetle (Balaninus nucum) which ia early summer lays 

 within the tender shell of a nut a single egg, which when the kernel is approaching 

 maturity, is hatched iato a small grub. This, when the period of transformation to 

 the pupa state is approaching, eats its way through the shell, and falling to the 

 ground, buries itself, and constructs a cell, from which it comes forth in the following 

 season as a perfect insect. As a timber tree, the wood of the hazel is never of 

 sufficient size for building purposes, but it is used for cabinet-making and in small and 

 delicate productions. It is tender, pHant, of a whitish-red colour, and of a close, even, 

 and full grain ; but it does not take a very bright poHsh. The roots, when they are 

 of sufficient size, afford curiously veined pieces, which are used in veneering cabinets, 

 &c. The great use of the hazel, however, is for undergrowth. Being extremely 

 tough and flexible, the root- shoots are used for making crates, hui'dles, hoops, wattles, 

 walking-sticks, fishing-rods, whip handles, and for "withs and bands for general pur- 

 poses. A strong fence is made by driving stakes into the ground, and interlacing 

 them with hazel-rods. Evelyn tells us that outhouses and even cottages were some- 

 times made in this manner. Hazel-rods varnished form an admii'able material for 

 rustic garden-seats and flower-baskets. Fagots of hazel are in gTeat demand for 

 heating ovens ; and'* the charcoal, which is very light, is considered excellent for 

 gunpowder ; it is also used for making crayons for di^awing, being for that purpose 

 charred in closed iron tubes. As an ornamental tree, when trained to a single stem, the 

 hazel forms a very handsome object for a lawn or park. It is a pleasing and early 

 herald of the ring's approach, the yellowish green catkins presenting perhaps the 

 earliest symptoms of vegetable expansion. The fruit-bearing buds do not show them- 

 selves till later, when they burst, and disclosing the bright crimson of their shafts, look 

 extremely beautiful. It not only retains its leaves a long time in autumn, after they 

 have assumed a rich yellow colour, but as soon as they drop they discover the nearly 

 fully grown male catkins, which often come into full flower at the end of October, 

 and remain on the tree in that state throughout the winter, and in days of bright 

 sunshine in February and March, when slightly moved by the wind, they have a gay 

 and most enlivening appearance. Sir Thomas D. Lauder says, " The hazel, besides 

 making up a prominent part of many a grove in the happiest manner, and tufting 

 and fringing the sides of many a ravine, often presents us with very picturesque 

 stems and ramifications. Then, when we think of the lovely scenes into which the 

 careless steps of our youth have been led in search of its nuts, when autumn had 

 begun to brown the points of their clusters, we are bound to it by threads of the most 

 delightful associations, with those beloved ones who were the companions of such idle 

 but happy days." The poetical allusions to the hazel are very frequent. Virgil 

 mentions it, and the old troubadours and French romance- writers have scarcely a 



