43 A TOUR ROUND MT GARDEN. 



upon the same tree. The male flowers appear the first, gene- 

 rally about the beginning of February, a long time before 

 the females venture "forth. They are long catkins of a pale 

 yellow, in the form of little close clusters, which hang from 

 the upper extremities of the branches; shivering through the 

 dreary season, they await the coming of the female flowers; 

 some wither, die with cold, and fall off, before these deign 

 to show themselves; but the male flowers are much the 

 more numerous. The female flowers, placed beneath the 

 catkins, begin to appear ; these are green, scaly buds, termi- 

 nated by a very small tip of beautiful crimson' red ; it is this 

 little bunch or tuft which receives and retains the yellow dust 

 that falls from the catkins; and that is the way nuts are made. 

 The hazel reminds us of four pretty verses of Virgil — 



" Populus Alcid« glatissima, vitis laccho, 

 Formosee myrtus Veneri, sua laurea PhcEljo. 

 Phyllis amat coiylos, illas diim Phyllis amabit, 

 Nee myrtus vincet corylos nee laurea Phcehi." 



" Hercules loves tlie poplar, and Bacchus the branches of 

 the vine ; the myrtle is consecrated to Venus, and the laurel 

 is cherished by Apollo. But Phyllis loves nut-trees, and, 

 while she loves them, nut-trees shall triumph over both the 

 myrtle of Venus and the laurel of Apollo." 



Great virtues were for a long time attributed, nay, still are 

 attributed in the provinces, to a hazel-branch ; it is pretended 

 that a wand of a nut-tree, cut in a certain season, with 

 certain ceremonies, and in the hands of a man purified after 

 certain methods, points of itself to a part of the earth in 

 which is concealed either a mine or a spring. However far 

 off you may be, you wiU not easily find a more singular belief 

 than that. 



Upon the nut-tree, as well as upon the trees which sur- 

 round it, I can see countless numbers of insects, without 

 reckoning those which, by their |mall size, escape my sight ; 

 there are some upon the leaves, some under the leaves, and 

 some in the leaves, that is to say, in the thickness of the 

 leaves. 



Between the two membranes of the leaves of the nut-tree, 

 little caterpillars live, eat, attain their growth, and spin a 

 small web rather larger than a grain of millet seed. Almost 



