386 



HISTORY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



frizzled, and cosford, being esteemed the best. 

 The cob nut is also a useful kind, because it fills 

 and keeps well, and may suit some situations from 

 its branches growing more upright than the 

 other varieties. For large sized fruit the great 

 cob nut, the Dowton large square nut, and the 

 Spanish nut, may be selected. 



The American hazel nut, corylus Americana, is 

 also of a very excellent quality. Upwards of a 

 hundred thousand bushels of foreign nuts are 

 annually consumed in this country. 



The Spanish nuts of the shops are fresh mits 

 from Spain; the Barcelona nuts are another var- 

 iety, kiln-dried before exportation. 



The Constanlinople nut (corylus colurna) is a 

 superior nut to even the best variety of the hazel. 

 Its flavour is equal, and its size more than double. 

 It is a round nut, invested with a deep calyx, or 

 involucre, which covers it almost entirely, and 

 is very much lobed and fringed at its extremity. 

 L'Ecluse, a distinguished gardener, brought 

 the nuts of the corylus colurna from Constantin- 

 ople, in 1582; and Linnaeus states, that in the 

 Botanical Garden at Leyden there was growing, 

 in 1736, a fine tree of this species, planted by 

 L'Ecluse. It was cultivated in England by Ray, 

 in 1666 . This tree grows naturally in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Constantinople. 



The natural soil of the hazel is a cool, dry 

 gravelly and sandy loam, and this is the best for 

 their cultivated state also. Filbert trees are gen- 

 erally planted in the orchard or in the slips which 

 surround the kitchen garden. They require 

 dressing every year, and a supply of manure. 

 All the sorts can be propagated by grafting, lay- 

 ers, suckers, and seeds. To preserve the varie- 

 ties distinct, the best mode of propagating is by 

 grafting in February or March upon seedling 

 or sucker stocks of the filbert or hazel. All the 

 kinds bear principally upon the sides and ends 

 of the upper young branches, and from small 

 shoots which proceed from the bases of side 

 branches cut off the preceding year. 



A particular form of tree receives in some parts 

 of the country, (especially in Kent, where the 

 culture of the filbert is can-ied on with advan- 

 tage) the najne of the dwarf productive nut, 

 though that name indicates rather the mode in 

 which the tree is trained than the variety to 

 which it belongs. Generally speaking, the filbert 

 is but a low grower; but still considerable ingen- 

 uity is exerted in keeping it do-\vn, it having 

 been found by general experience that the dwarf- 

 ing of fruit trees is the most effectual means of 

 ensuring a large and uniform crop, and fruit of 

 superior quality. The trees that are dwarfed are 

 not allowed to exceed seven feet in height; and 

 they are trimmed in the form of a goblet, witli 

 an open centre, as is generally done with well 

 managed gooseberry trees. When the tree comes 

 into proper bearing, this goblet has attained a 



diameter of about six feet, which is every season 

 covered with filberts, both outside and inside. 

 The nuts are of excellent quality; and it is found 

 by comparison, that a tree treated in this man- 

 ner, with the ground regularly hoed and cleaned, 

 will produce more than those which are planted 

 in a hedge-row or coppice, and allowed to run 

 wild in the usual manner. 



The Rev. G. Swayne, having had a plantation 

 of filberts, which for the twenty years of their 

 existence had produced very little fruit, began 

 to suspect a want of male blossoms. He there- 

 fore selected a number of catkins from the com- 

 mon hazel, and suspended them over the scai-let 

 blossom of his filberts, and the result was, that 

 the first year he had more fruit than he had 

 during the twenty preceding ones. To prove 

 that this was owing to the farina of the male 

 blossoms, he tried some with and some without 

 their assistance, and found the fruit produced only 

 where the male blossoms had been applied. He 

 taught this mode to a neighbouring farmer's wife 

 who had a row of barren trees, and she was 

 much delighted to find the plan succeed with 

 these also; and next season sent her instructor 

 6 lbs. of very fine filberts from four old stunted 

 trees that had not borne one for many years. 



The maturity of the fruit is indicated by the 

 crop turning brown, and by the nuts, which 

 have also become brown, readily quitting the 

 husk. If covered with dry sand, filberts will 

 keep for several months without shrinking. By 

 inclosing them in casks perfectly air tight, and 

 placing them in a cool place, they may also be 

 preserved for a year or more. 



In a rude state of society wild nuts are sup- 

 posed to have afforded a considerable portion of 

 the food of man. Even acorns, or the rougher 

 nut of the oak, are said to have been eaten by 

 the ancient Britons. Beech mast or nuts are 

 now used as well as acorns, as an excellent food 

 for fattening pigs. 



The Caroe Tree, (ceratonia siliqua.) Natural 

 family, leguminosw. Polygamia, dioecia of Linn. 

 This tree grows extensively in the south of 

 Europe, particularly in some provinces of Spain, 

 of which Valencia is the principal, and bears afruit 

 called thecaroJ hean, which is an important article 

 of commerce. It is chiefly used for the feeding 

 of cattle; but furnishes a nutritive aliment to 

 the poor in times when there is a scarcity of 

 bread-corn. 



This is generally considered the locust tree of 

 scripture; and in Spain, where the seeds are eaten, 

 it is called St John's bread. Ignorance of eastern 

 manners and natural history, professor Martin 

 observes, induced some persons to fancy that the 

 locusts on which John the Baptist fed were the 

 tender shoots of plants, and that the wild honey 

 was the pulp of the pod of the carob, whence it 

 had the name of St John's bread. There is 



