2020 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 



the tree thrives best on a calcareous loam on chalk or rock ; but in Scotland 

 it is found on granite, basalt, and freestone. 



History. The first mention that we find of the hazel tree is in the Bible ; 

 where, in Genesis (c. xxx. v. 37.), we are told that " Jacob took him rods of 

 green poplar, and of the hazel and chestnut tree, and pilled white strakes in 

 them, and made the white appear which was in the rods," in order to make 

 the cattle under his care conceive streaked young. This has excited much dis- 

 cussion among commentators ; and the general opinion seems to be, that 

 luz (Heb.) is rightly translated hazel ; though great doubt exists as to the tree 

 there designated the chestnut; which most commentators suppose to be the 

 plane. (Seep. 1992.) The hazel nut was known both to the Greeks and 

 Romans : the latter especially frequently mention it. The filbert is said to 

 have been brought originally from Pontus ; whence it was called by the Romans 

 Nux Pontica. The hazel, or Nux Avellana, we are told by Virgil, in the 

 Georgics, was considered by the Romans to be as injurious to the vines, on 

 account of its spreading roots, as the goat was for its propensity to browse on 

 the young shoots ; and the keepers of the vineyards used to sacrifice the goat 

 to Bacchus, and roast its entrails on hazel spits. Virgil also mentions that 

 they used hazel twigs to bind their vines. The common hazel was called by 

 the Romans Nux Avellana, from Avellino, a city in Naples; where, Swinburne 

 tells us, in after times, nuts were cultivated in such abundance, as, in favourable 

 seasons, to produce a profit of 11,250/. " I do not," says Evelyn, "confound 

 the filbert Pontic, or filberd, distinguished by its beard, with our foresters, or 

 bald hazel nuts, which, doubtless, we had from abroad, and bearing the names 

 of Avelan, Avelin, as I find in some ancient records and deeds in my custody, 

 where my ancestors' names were written Avelan, alias Evelin, generally." 

 In the dark ages, the hazel was highly valued for its supposed divining powers. 

 The following passage from Evelyn shows the popular belief in his time on 

 this subject : " Lastly, for riding-switches and divinatory rods, for the de- 

 tecting and finding out of minerals (at least, if that tradition be no impos- 

 ture) ; it is very wonderful, by whatever occult virtue, the forked stick (so 

 cut, and skilfully held) becomes impregnated with those invisible steams and 

 exhalations, as, by its spontaneous bending from a horizontal posture, to dis- 

 cover not only mines and subterraneous treasure, and springs of water, but 

 criminals guilty of murder, &c. ; made out so solemnly, and the effects 

 thereof, by the attestation of magistrates, and divers other learned and cre- 

 dible persons (who have critically examined matters of fact), is certainly next 

 to a miracle, and requires a strong faith. Let the curious, therefore, consult 

 the philosophical treatise of Dr. Vallemont (Physique Occult, on Traitc dc 

 la Baguet divinatorc), which will at least entertain them with a world of sur- 

 prising things." The belief that certain gifted persons possessed the power of 

 discovering hidden water or metal, by means of a divining-rod, is as old as 

 the time of the Romans ; but the virgula Mercurialis was not always made of 

 hazel, or even of wood, but sometimes of brass or other metal. About the 

 fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the art was called rhabdomancy ; and persons 

 naturally gifted for practising it were called rhabdomists. The diviner took 

 a hazel rod, which was either curved or forked, and held it by the two ends, 

 so that its curvature was inclined outwards. If the person who held the rod 

 possessed the power of rhabdomancy, and approached any metallic vein, or 

 other magnetic substance, or came near them, a slow rotatory motion of the 

 rod ensued in different directions, according to particular circumstances. (See 

 Physical and Historical Researches into Rhabdomancy, &c. ; Elemcnti di Elettro- 

 mclria Animate, &c. &c.) In other cases, the rod was peeled, and then laid 

 on the palm of the hand, with the but end of the twig on the pulse of the 

 wrist; and the diviner moved slowly along, till the rod pointed to the desired 

 place ; the rhabdomist feeling, at the same time, either a violent acceleration 

 or retardation of the pulse, and a sudden sensation of great heat or great cold. 

 (See Heinskingla, eller Suorro Sturleson's Nordl'dmkc Konnga Sagor., p. 1. c. vii. ; 

 Martin and Rio's Disquisilorum Mngicornm libri sex.} Sir Walter Scott makes 



