452 i a Ee 
GARDENERS’ 
CHRONTELE. 
[OCTOBER 10, 1874, 
r less rainy rede was formerly attached. to 
Mideuriies Da 
Antiquity tells 1 us of the custom of scattering 
nuts at weddings, which is. also mentioned by 
Virgil; this may have been intended, as some 
assert, to symbolise that the bridegroom was 
bidding farewell to boyish. sports and pleasures, 
of which the scrambling for nuts was’ a type, 
or possibly as an emblem. of fertility, just as 
fea is occasionally strewn over a bride at. 
s now-a-days. Itis Spes that n nuts 
were in some way looked itive of | 
fruitfulness, as, —— the already aaa 
signification nut` year, read in 
Kelly’s Curiosities of Ind: ndoststrofeat T dition 
and Folk-lore that “in Westphalia ahd other 
parts of Germany a few nuts are mingled with 
the seed corn a AR it A, enie eens 
it was form 
stom :of scattering 
nuts at weddings was retained until a compara- 
tively recent period in Minorca. 
The use of nuts for divination in love affairs 
an sine s also = At as “N ac 
-Mi m a; of n uts upon it. Burns; 
in his poem "n ; oia spiera to the 
custom 
“ The auld guidwife’s weel- hoarded nits 
round and round divi 
- An’ monie lads’ and lasses’ ts 
Are there that night decided : 
Some kindle, ee , Side by side, 
An’ burn the: 
Some start awa w on cy pri 
dj m out-owre the chimlie 
u’ high that night.” 
understand this passage, it must be 
together, the result of the courtship will be 
fayoureble 3 but if, f they start away from one 
another, an wngati: och nye 
to the | the answ 
custom is English 
as well as Scotch and is described by Cay, who 
> s 
« Two a Nuts I threw into the fla 
thy, passion grow, 
For twas thy nut that did so brightly glow.” 
In Ireland the same ‘custom is: observed, but 
| a somewhat different renin Brand says ‘that 
co when the young women would know if their 
lovers are are faithful, [they] put three nuts upon 
of es nae: nuts after'the 
lian ee fini JEN 
prove unfaithfal ; ; if it begins’ to lize € or burn, 
he has a regard for the person making the trial ; 
4 A nuts named after the girl and her lover 
a aas they will be’ married.” Many 
“ose te ais were foretold Sea the ashes at 
esi emai te — the 
aost sequently the wn of a hat, and the 
y peia uciflor ably 
sepalis oblongis ; ; tepals su wali er hypochilio parvo 
Sst. san aan anteposito crasso 
| — erena e tridentato, a s erusa tridentat O, epi- 
io saccato ‘aan > apice utrinque 
acon aber apiculata ; sepala ochroleuea s. sepala et 
In Wales the throwing of nuts into the fire 
Britain. 
Those that burn bright betoken prosperity to 
the owners during “the following year ; 
those ~~ crackle and burn black indicate 
misfort 
When age wood of the Hazel comes under 
notice—which must be in a future paper, as the 
tolk-lore of the divining-rod alone is very exten- 
sive—we shall see- that among its virtues was 
that of causing death to serpents struck with it. 
Surflet tells us 5 that the fruit also has “ a certaine 
contrairie vertue against venemous beasts, for if 
you ge a cluster of small nuts in any part of 
the house, no scorpion or venemous beast will 
E 
> 
Rue doe eye venome, and the biting of 
venemous. beas 
- The Hazel is Poe an unlucky tree by 
the Highlanders of Scotland ; but the aA 
of what is termed a.“ double nut,” or two nuts 
joined together, is very fortunate ; and. even of 
recent years = nuts were worn about the 
person or am It is generally 
considered “ aia ” to eat both of the kernels 
when two, as pene fa Beas, are found in 
the same shell. a passage in Fuller’s 
History of the Holy War it would seem to have 
been at one time the custom to beat nut trees as 
t trees are beaten; but the absence of 
Walnu 
passagi alluded to, which runs as- follows: 
“Who like a nut tree must -be manured by 
beating, or else would not bear fruit. 
Br cites a passage from Owen’s Welsh 
Dictionary, from which it appears that the Hazel 
d 
custom of presenting’ a forsaken lover with a 
stick or twig of Hazel; probably in allusion to 
the double meaning of the word. Of the same 
sense is the following proverb, supposed to be 
er of a widow, on being. hhy. she. 
wept : ‘Painful is the smoke of the Hazel !°” 
What is the “double meaning” here alluded 
to? Itis believed i in Sweden that H; 
that the ashes of burnt” nut-shells 
‘placed at the back’ of a ‘child’s head sarees 
change its eyes from grey to black ! 
The variety of Hazel Nut known as = Cob- 
Nut is said ‘to take its name’ from ame 
described by Brand as rites played by children 
in Yorkshire. Numerous nuts are stru ung to- 
gether “ like the beads of a rosary,” and the two 
pérsons engaged in ‘the e game are each provided 
with one of these siringa The field of battle is 
ect of each player is Gie crush the nuts: of his 
opponent by striking them with one of his own 
uts.. The nut which has been successful in 
breaking many of the nuts opposed to it is called 
a cob-nut, the Angl o-Saxon cof meaning a 
head. B. M. 
Raw Garden Plants. 
sz AGANISIA oer ag ec 
eSa EN Prcuoblis amplis emis x 
stricto distichis ; i folis o er a ee "pedun. 
di ar added, whit was hi 
flow e like ‘those of the Agen pl pule 
with wi white petals and oe nh The saccate fimb ri 
ip is quite peculiar. o be hoped the 
improve when fully established, and it is much to ț 
wished that some representation of it ma 
It flowered in the stoves of A illem 
Park, Sydenham. Z7. G. Reh E 
a F LOWERS. 
warm autum 
but shall ta ee = gettin 
a. The lit tle flek Dahlia Ci 
bipinnatus atropurpureus, are oey n tty 
He they make very good perennials, if 
and hem, 
I am very fond of Actionin i virginica, 
a 
ery 
ally of the Rudbeckias 
yellow -and - black - flow 
the and gay 
sha a 
hite varie fee 
ber E I 2 most 
New Plant and Bulb 
aquose violacea ; reliqua alba, 
