CHAP. CV. CORYLA‘CEX. CO’RYLUS. 2019 
list, the following: — The great Cob Nut, Hort. Soc. Cat., No.9. The nut 
is roundish, with a thick shell, and one of the largest in cultivation.—The 
Downton large square Nut, Hort. Soc. Cat., No. 13. The fruitis large, short, 
and obtusely 4-sided.—The Northampton Nut, Hort. Soc. Cat., No. 25. 
Oblong fruit, very good.—The Northamptonshire Prolific, Hort. Soc. Cat., 
No. 27., an oblong nut, middle-sized, with a thick shell, and very early. 
Description, §c. The common hazel nut is a large shrub, with numerous 
stems rising from the root; or a small bushy tree, with copious branches, 
which are hairy or glandular when young. The bark is ash-coloured, and 
sometimes cloven on the trunk, but of a clear bright brown, frequently spotted 
with white on the branches. The leaves are roundish, stalked, and alternate : 
they are of a darkish green, and slightly downy above; but paler, and more 
downy beneath. The male catkins are terminal and clustered; they are long 
and pendulous, greyish, and opening in early spring, before the appearance of 
the leaves. ‘“ The ovate scaly buds, containing the female flowers, become 
conspicuous, at the same time, by their tufts of crimson stigmas. The nuts, 
two or three from each bud, are sessile, roundish-ovate, and half-covered by the 
jagged outer calyx of their respective flowers, greatly enlarged and permanent.” 
(Smith.) The rate of growth, under favourable circumstances, is from | ft. 6 in. 
to 2ft. for the first two or three years after planting; after which, if trained 
to a single stem, the tree grows slower ; attaining the height of 12 ft. in 10 
years, and never growing much higher, unless drawn up by other trees. It 
grows remarkably well under the shade of other trees, but not under their 
drip. Its shoots are completed early in the season; and its leaves take their 
rich yellow autumnal tint early in the autumn, remaining on a long time, and 
only dropping off after a severe frost. Hence the great beauty of hazel cop- 
pices, especially when mixed with a few evergreens, such as the holly, the 
yew, and the box. Left to itself, it generally forms a huge bush, with num- 
berless sucker-like branches proceeding from the root. When cut down to 
the ground, it stoles with great luxuriance, forming shoots from 3 ft. to 6 ft. in 
length the first season; and its duration, when so treated, exceeds a century. 
When treated as a tree with a single stem, it will probably live much longer. 
The largest nut trees which we recollect to have seen in England are in 
Eastwell Park, Kent; where, drawn up among thorns, crab trees, and common 
maples, they are upwards of 30 ft. high, with trunks 1 ft. in diameter at the 
surface of the ground. 
Geography. The hazel is a native of all the temperate climates of Europe 
and Asia. In Great Britain, it is found from Cornwall to Sutherlandshire : 
in the north of England, it attains to the elevation of 1600 ft. (Winch); and 
it is found at about the same height on the hills of Forfarshire and Aberdeen- 
shire. (Watson’s Outlines, &c.) In Lochiel, Argyllshire, between 700 ft. and 
800 ft. above the sea, there was, in 1832, a small wood of nut trees, producing 
abundance of fruit, and some of them with trunks of above 1 ft. in circumfe- 
rence. (Ibid.) The line of nuts on the Alps, between 45° and 46°, is stated by 
H. C. Watson to rise to 3798 ft., the snow line being 9080 ft. In Sweden, 
according to Professor Schouw, the hazel is found on the west side of He- 
ligoland, in lat. 60°; while on the eastern side of the great mountain range 
it reaches to lat. 6(0—61°; and, though met with more to the northward, 
in the Gulf of Bothnia, yet it does not there go beyond 63°. In short, it is 
considered as not extending beyond the region of the beech. (See Gard. Mag., 
xii. p. 60.) Evelyn observes that the hazel “ affects cold, barren, dry, and 
sandy grounds; mountainous, and even rocky, soils produce them; they 
prosper where quarries of freestone lie underneath, as at Hazelbury in Wilt- 
shire, Hazelingfield in Cambridgeshire, Hazelmere in Surrey, and other places ; 
but more plentifully if the ground be somewhat moist, dankish, and mossy, 
as in the fresher bottoms and sides of hills, holts, and in hedgerows.” 
(Hunt. Evel., i. p. 215.) In Kent, where the hazel abounds in all the native 
woods, and where the cultivated varieties are to be found in most orchards, 
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