128 THE NUT CUITUEIST. 



nut is supposed to have been ovate or oval, but with a 

 plant indigenous to such a wide range of climate and 

 country, and one that has been so long under cultivation, 

 — running wild in many localities where it is not a native, 

 — ^it would be very difficult at this time to determine its 

 primary botanical characters. A common shrub or small 

 tree throughout the greater part of Europe and Asia. 



OoRTLUS CoLUKiirA (Linn.). — Constantinople ha- 

 zel. Leaves roundish ovate, heart-shaped ; husk double, 

 the inner one divided into three deeply cleft divisions, 

 the outer with many long, slender, curved segments, 

 giving to the calyx or husk a fringed appearance, but 

 leaving the end of the nut fully exposed (Fig. 39). Nuts 

 small, and for this reason rarely cultivated. Native of 

 Asia Minor, where the tree attains a hight of from fifty 

 to sixty feet. It is, however, hardy in France and Eng- 

 land, and was introduced into the latter country some 

 three hundred years ago, probably by Clusius, who re- 

 ceived either nuts or plants from Constantinople, hence 

 its present name. 



There are several other hazels and filberts, so distinct 

 from the two common Enropean types that botanists 

 have, in a few instances, been inclined to elevate them 

 to the rank of species, and among these I may name 

 Corylus heterophylla, or various-leaved filbert, from east- 

 ern Asia, also the Corylus ferox, or spiny filbei-t, which 

 has a long and deeply cut or fringed husk. It is a na- 

 tive of the Sheopur mountain in Nepaul. But from the 

 two common European species, G. Avellana and C. Co- 

 hirna, and their hybrids, many hundreds of varieties 

 have been raised, and from among these we may readily 

 select a dozen possessing all the distinct and estimable 

 properties to be found in this genus of nut-bearing 

 plants ; to 'multiply names without securing anything 

 of intrinsic value, is but a waste of time and labor on 

 the part of the cultivator. 



