

THE ORIGIN OF WALNUTS. 167 



by the nuts at large. The little red tufted 

 blossoms which everybody knows so well in 

 early spring are each surrounded by a bunch 

 of three bracts ; and as the nut grows bigger, 

 these bracts form a green leaf-like covering, 

 which causes it to look very much like the 

 ordinary foliage of the hazel-tree. Besides, 

 they are thickly set with small prickly hairs, 

 which are extremely annoying to the ringers, 

 and must prove far more unpleasant to the 

 delicate lips and noses of lower animals. 

 Just at present the nuts have reached this 

 stage in our copses ; but as soon as autumn 

 sets in, and the seeds are ripe, they will turn 

 brown, fall out of their withered investment, 

 and easily escape notice on the soil beneath, 

 where the dead leaves will soon cover them 

 up in a mass of shrivelled brown, indistin- 

 guishable in shade from the nuts themselves. 

 Take, as an example of the more carefully 

 protected tropical kinds, the coco-nut. Grow- 

 ing on a very tall palm-tree, it has to fall a 

 considerable distance toward the earth ; and 



