THOSE HAZEL PACKETS 



Jtdy 7th 



jit J *aj'\ \ OR years I have seen these curious pack- 

 ets on the hazel, and similar ones on the 

 alder. I have found them by the dozens 

 brown and dry, and needing only a touch to 

 dislodge them as they hung from their at- 



tachment; and I have found them fresh and 



green, as if the mysterious clerk that had 

 done them up had left them for a moment to get a 

 string. But no matter how patiently I waited for him, 

 he never would return, and for years his identity was a 

 complete mystery. Last summer I determined to catch 

 him at his work, and I did ; and am now able to give 

 some account of his clever hocus-pocus or rather, I 

 should say her hocus-pocus, for my little clerk proved 

 to be feminine. If the reader has never seen any of 

 these curious little packages hanging upon the hazel 

 and alder bushes, they are well worth looking up. 

 They may be found all summer, and occasionally are 

 to be seen by dozens on a single bush. In each case 

 the same method has been adopted, the leaf being first 

 folded face to face along the midrib, and then tightly 

 rolled from tip to stem, and here retained in its com- 



