210 



CURASSOW. 



American wood?, and attains a height of twelve or 

 fourteen feet. It is a hardy tree, and produces 

 abundance of nuts. It is sometimes cultivated in 

 Britain. 



The next genus for consideration is Fergus, or 

 beech. Fagus sylvatica, the common beech-tree, is 

 abundant in forests in the south of England, but is 

 rarely found wild in Scotland. It is a handsome and 

 valuable forest tree, putting forth green leaves, many 

 of which, more especially when the tree has been 

 clipped, remain during the winter, and assume a 

 brown colour 



The red leaf 



Seared in autumn's breath, yet wearing well 

 A garb to hail the coming winter in. 



The leaves, after they fall, do not readily decay, 

 and are used by the country people in France in 

 place of straw for their beds. 



The tree is either planted in woods or hedgerows, 

 and sometimes attains a considerable height. Beech 

 woods are peculiarly dry, and agreeable for walking, 

 and are eagerly sought by the botanist, on account of 

 the many rare orchideous plants which they contain. 

 The leaves of the beech appear in April, and the 

 flowers are produced in May. They are succeeded 

 by an angular fruit, the size of a filbert, commonly 

 called beech-mast, which is ripened in autumn. There 

 are two varieties of beech, the one with dark red, the 

 other with cut leaves. 



The wood of the beech is hard and brittle, and is 

 employed by cabinet-makers, turners, and wheel- 

 wrights. Carpenters' planes are made of it, and 

 when split into thin layers, it forms scabbards for 

 swords. The ancient shepherds carved their love 

 verses on the green bark of the tree, and they used 

 the wood for the manufacture of bowls. 



No wars did men molest, 

 When only beechen bowls were in request. 



Beech nuts are sweet and agreeable, and have been 

 used for food. When dried and powdered, they have 

 been made into wholesome bread. They enabled 

 the inhabitants of the island of Chios to endure a me- 

 morable siege. When roasted, they are sometimes 

 used as a substitute for coffee. By expression, they 

 yield a thick oil, which may be kept many years 

 without becoming rancid. This oil is used for 

 seasoning in some parts of France ; and in Silesia the 

 poor people make use of it in place of butter. Swine 

 are driven in autumn into beech forests to feed upon 

 the mast. The beech tree is propagated from seeds, 

 and is treated in the same way as the oak and chest- 

 nut. It delights in a chalky and stony soil, and, 

 when fully grown, affords an agreeable shade, as is 

 beautifully noticed by Virgil in his First Eclogue. 

 (For further particulars iu regard to the cultivation of 

 this tree, see article BEECH.) 



Another genus, which is sometimes included under 

 this order, is Corylus, or hazel. Corylus ave/lana, 

 common hazel nut, grows abundantly in hedges and 

 copses in all parts of Britain. It flowers early in 

 spring, and ripens its fruit in September. The nuts, 

 which are known by the name of filberts, are sweet, 

 agreeable, and nutritive, and are common at our 

 tables. Of the several varieties, the frizzled filbert is 

 the best. The nuts contain a thick fixed oil, and 

 are sometimes made into emulsions. The wood is 

 used for various domestic and agricultural purposes. 

 It forms good charcoal for drawing 



The young forked twigs of the tree constitute the 

 celebrated divining rod, which, in the ancient days of 

 superstition, was employed to indicate the part of 

 the soil in which metals and springs of water existed. 



The hazel is generally raised from seed, and, in 

 order to produce fruit abundantly, it is regularly 

 pruned, and not allowed to attain a great height. 

 The name hazel-nut is derived from two Anglo-Saxon 

 words, hascl, a cap, and knutu, a nut. (We have 

 already given a short notice of this tree under the 

 article BETULINE^, in which order it is included by 

 some authors.) 



The members of this family bear a very strong 

 resemblance to each other, both in their botanical 

 characters and medical properties. In all of them 

 the bark is bitter and astringent, and is used for dye- 

 ing, tanning, or for medical purposes. The wood is, 

 in general, employed as a durable timber for building. 

 While, in a few instances, the fruit is bitter and 

 disagreeable, in the greater number it is farinaceous, 

 and frequently contains an oily matter used in do- 

 mestic economy. There are no poisonous plants in 

 this family. 



CURASSOW, or HOCCO Crax. A genus of 

 gallinaceous birds belonging to the family ALEC- 

 TORiDjE, under which some account of the characters 

 of that family, and a list of the genera which compose 

 it, will be found. 



The generic characters of the present genus are : 

 the bill strong, of mean length, compressed, higher 

 than broad at the base ; the upper mandible elevated, 

 arched, curved from its origin, which is enveloped 

 with a membrane ; nostrils basal, lateral, and partly 

 closed with membrane ; head ornamented with a 

 crest composed of feathers which are erect, but 

 recurved at their points ; tarsi long and without any 

 spur ; three toes to the front united at their bases by 

 a small membrane, and one toe to the rear which 

 reaches the ground in walking ; wings short, concave, 

 and rounded ; the sixth quill being the longest ; tail 

 composed of twelve large feathers. 



The AlectondcB occupy the same place in the natu- 

 ral history of tropical America, which the Gallinae do 

 in that of tropical Asia ; and among them the genus 

 Crax answers to the genus gallus, or common domestic 

 poultry. They are found only in the rich forests of 

 South America, and are more equatorial in their 

 habits than the turkeys, though in their localities the 

 two genera border upon each other, and, of course, to 

 a certain extent occupy the confines of each other's 

 ground. Like the jungle fowl of the east, the Curas- 

 sows (Hoccos is the preferable name, for Curassow is 

 the trivial name of -only one variety, and it is not a 

 very happy one, being derived from the island of 

 Cura9oa,in which we believe the birds are not found) 

 are all perchers ; though they all seek their food 

 upon the ground. Like these, too, they are very im- 

 patient of rain, and their plumage is soon wetted ; in 

 fact there is in their whole economy a very great 

 resemblance to the fowl of the east. 



That the principal ground-feeding birds of the two 

 most fertile regions of the world, which have nearly 

 the same latitude, but are almost the antipodes of 

 each other in point of longitude, should correspond 

 so nearly in their general habits and economy, is an 

 important point in natural history ; because it esta- 

 blishes the connection which there is between the 

 region and the inhabitants. It also lets us see wny 

 the gallinaceous birds of those rich tropical countries 



