2024. 



ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. 



PART MI. 



considered excellent for {gunpowder ; 

 it is also useil for inakinj; crayons 

 for drawing, being, for that purpose, 

 diarrc'il in closed iron tul)es. The 

 principal nse of the hazel in England, 

 at the present time, is as a fruit tree ; 

 and a great quantity of the nuts, i)oth 

 of the wild and cultivated kinds, arc 

 sold in the English markets. " Be- 

 sides those raised at home," says 

 M'(Xilloch, " we imi)ort nuts from 

 tliflbrent parts of France, Portugal, 

 and 8[)ain, but principally from the 

 hitter. The Spanish nuts in the 

 highest estimation, though sold under 

 the name of Barcelona nuts, are not 

 really shipped at that city, but at 

 Tarragona, a little more to the south. 

 Mr. liiglis says that the annual average 

 export of nuts from Tarragona is 

 from 25,000 to 30,000 bags, of four 

 bags to the ton. The cost was, free 

 on board, in autunm, 1830, 17.v. ChI. a 

 bag. (Spain in 1830, vol. ii. p. 3G2.) 

 The entries of nuts for home con- 

 sumption amount to from 100,000 to 

 125,000 bushels a year; the duty of 

 2.1. a bushel jjroducing from 10,000/. 

 to 12,.530/. clear." (Diet, of Com., 

 p. 853.) Mr. M'Culloch adds, « The 

 kernels have a mild, farinaceous, oily 

 taste, agreeable to most palates. A 

 kind of chocolate has been pre|)ared 

 from them ; and they have been sometimes made into bread. The ex[)rcssed 

 oil of hazel nuts is little inferior to that of almonds." Evelyn tells us that hazel 

 nuts, though considered unwholesome to those who were asthmatic, were, in 

 his " time, thought to be fattening ; and, when full ripe, the filberts especially, 

 if peeled in warm water, as they blanch almomls, make a pudding very little, if 

 at all, inferior to what our ladies make of almonds." (vol. i. p. 217.) The oil 

 made from hazel nuts, which is usually called nut oil, is best made in the 

 midtlle of winter ; as, if made sooner, the nut yields less oil ; and, if later, it is 

 apt to become rancid. It is extracted in the same manner as the walnut oil. 

 (See p. 142S).). It is never made in England, and but rarely in France. 



As an ornamental tree, the hazel, when trained to a single stem, forms a 

 very handsome object for a lawn, near a winter's residence ; because 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 full-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. The length of time the leaves remain 

 on the tree, and their rich yellow, render the hazel, as we have already ob- 

 served (p. 2019.), one of tiie most ornamental of all deciduous shrubs as 

 under'Towth ; it ranking, in this respect, with the oak and tlie beech. The 

 foliage of the birch and the willow, two of the commonest nndcrgrowths in 

 indigenous woods, is meagre, and drops off suddenly; while the leaves of the 

 ash and the chestnut drop off early, when they have scarcely changed colour; 

 and, hence, these trees, as undergrowths, are far inferior to the hazel in w oods 

 which form conspicuous features in the view from a mansion, or where orna- 



