Corylus 



CORYLUS. 



"^^ ' inter densas corylos ' (Ec. i. 14). 

 ' edurae coryli ' (Ge. ii. 65). 



The hazel, Corylus Avellana, gets its specific name 

 from the Campanian town of Abella, where possibly 

 the filbert was first grown. The slopes of Palestrina 

 were also famous for nuts, which were therefore 

 often called ' nuces Praenestinae.' Virgil makes no 

 mention of the fruit, but Theophrastus compares its 

 flavour to that of olive-oil. 



The tree was grown for firewood, and in Tuscany 

 you may still see women carrying home large faggots 

 of it standing upright in baskets bound to their 

 backs. Virgil forbids the planting of it among vines 

 (Ge. ii. 299). The reason is that its roots spread 

 and take much out of the soil. When the goat was 

 sacrificed as an enemy to the vines {ib. 390), the 

 spits on which the entrails were roasted were made 

 of hazel wood, and it may be supposed that these 

 spits also, as the product of an enemy to the vine, 

 were afterwards consigned to the flames. 



Catkins, winter ; female flower, March. 

 Italian name, Nocciuolo. 



Crocus. 



' crocum . . . rubentem ' (Ge. iv. 182). 

 ' picta croco . . . vestis ' (Ae. ix. 614). 



Of the crocus a dozen species are found in 



Italy, but Virgil's plant is only the saffron (Crocus 



sativus), which gets its name from an Arabic word 



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