THE BUTTON-BUSH. 217 



ter, and eacli invested with a calyx like that of an ordi- 

 nary flower. The Beaked Hazel is a smaller bush and 

 frequents more solitary places than the other. "The 

 calyx enclosing the nut, densely hispid and round at base, 

 is contracted like a bottle into a long narrow neck, which 

 is cut and toothed at the extremity." The whole nut 

 with its envelope resembles a bird's head and beak. A 

 dry sandy loam is the soil generally occupied by the 

 Hazel. Along the old roads that pass over dry sandy 

 plains, that border many of the river-banks in the North- 

 ern States, the Hazel, growing in frequent clumps, forms 

 in some of these locations the most common kind of 

 shrubbery. When we see a pitch-pine wood on one side 

 of a road, the cultivated land on the opposite side is 

 usually bordered with a growth of Hazels. 



Both species are particularly worthy of protection and 

 preservation. They produce a valuable nut without our 

 care; they are ornamental to our iields and by-roads; 

 they feed the squirrels and shelter the birds, and they 

 add a lively interest to natural objects by their spontane- 

 ous products. The Hazel is associated with many pleas- 

 ant adventures in our early days, with nut-gatherings 

 and squirrel-hunts, and with many pleasant incidents in 

 classical poetry. The Hazel has been a favorite theme of 

 poets, especially those of the Middle Ages. In the songs 

 of that period are constant allusions to the Hazel-bush, 

 probably from its frequency in natural hedgerows, and its 

 valuable fruit. 



THE BUTTON-BUSH. 



Not much has been written of the Button-bush. We 

 hear but little of those shrubs that do not readily admit 

 of culture, and are not susceptible of modification by the 



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