The Hazel-Nitt. 251 



"Kate, like the hazel- twig, 

 Is straight and slender ; and as brown in hue, 

 As hazel-nuts, and sweeter than the kernels." 



Are we to think of Baptista's shrewish daughter as gipsy- 

 faced ? Was she another " Nut-brown mayde," that faith- 

 ful creature to whom good fortune and evil were alike 

 indifferent, so that she could share the fate of the man 

 she loved, even in the wilderness ? Never mind. We 

 should gain nothing if we knew. To Petruchio it was 

 enough that she was Kate. To the man who loves, 

 whatever the colours, they are the right ones. 



The hazel-nut is diffused, as a wild and indigenous 

 plant, all over Europe and Central and Russian Asia, 

 growing spontaneously in woods and thickets, and fond, 

 specially, of dingles and tree-clad ravines. Able to 

 become a small tree, still it is seldom anything more than 

 a great bush, many long and flexible stems arising from 

 the base. The leaves are roundish ovate, deeply serrate, 

 and usually provided with a point, developed not as 

 usually in leaves, but suddenly and abruptly. The centre 

 of the blade often bears an irregular purplish spot ; in 

 autumn, before falling, the foliage changes to a fine light 

 yellow. 



None of our native fruit-trees are more interesting in 

 regard to their flowers, these being monoecious, and 

 developed long before the leaves. The stamens are 

 contained in catkins, put forth as far back as September, 

 while the nuts of the current year are scarcely ripe. By 

 Christmas they become conspicuous, and in February 



