THE HAZEL 61 
kdpvov (karyon), a nut. “Hazel” is said to come 
from the Early English “hes,” a behest, connected 
with the German “heissen,” to give orders, the 
sceptre of authority among the simple chieftains of 
a more primitive time having been a Hazel-wand. 
The wild Hazel has grown abundantly in Britain 
since prehistoric times, and its nuts appear to 
have formed part of the food of the Swiss lake- 
dwellers. Both the Hazel and the Filbert were 
cultivated by the Romans, who are said to have 
given Scotland the Latinised name of Caledonia, 
from Cal-Dun, the Hill of Hazel, whilst the Filbert 
was called by them Nux Pontica, having been 
brought originally from Pontus. Its modern name 
is almost certainly a barbarous compound of 
“feuille,” a leaf, and “beard,” referring to_the long 
cupule projecting beyond the nut; but in very 
‘early times a more poetical origin was found for 
it. Phyllis, despairing at the prolonged absence 
of Demophoon, put an end to her life, but, as 
Gower tells us in his “Confessio Amantis ”— 
“Phyllis in the same throwe 
Was shape into a nutte-tree, 
That alle men it might see; 
And after Phyllis, Philliberde 
This tre was cleped in the yerde.” 
Many of the old vocabularies allude to the same 
fanciful etymology, and Spenser speaks of “ Phillis’ 
philbert.” 
Virgil states that THazel-twigs were used to 
bind the vines; but that, the roots of the nut- 
tree being considered injurious to the vines from 
