SPEAT. 175 



which are curious departures from the parental 

 or ancestral form, so far as their fruit is con- 

 cerned; but the spray, whose wintry character 

 we are now considering, has in all the varieties, 

 through all modifications, preserved much of the 

 especial interest and charm which distinguish the 

 hereditary ' Crab.' 



Lost as it would otherwise be amidst the 

 tangled growths of the wood and the hedge, the 

 Hazel is noticeable by the splashed and freckled 

 character of its smooth and shining bark, as well 

 as by its mid-Winter show of ' catkins.' The 

 spray in its mode of ramification is not unlike 

 that of the Elm, the buds being placed on 

 alternate sides of the shoots, and the continuation 

 of the latter diverging at each node out of a 

 straight line, and at what may be called a broad 

 angle ; the buds also in form suggesting those 

 of the Elm. But there is much greater irregu- 

 larity in the spray of the Hazel than in that 

 of the Elm, a disposition to proceed on the prin- 

 ciple of ' filling up ' every little vacuity, without 

 regard to symmetry. Hence it is, doubtless, that 

 the shade of the Hazel in summer is so dense, as 



