chap. cv. coryla'cete. co'rylus. 2019 



list, the following : — The great Cob Nut, Hort. Soc. Cat., No. 9. The nut 

 is roundish, with a thick shell, and one of the largest in cultivation. — The 

 Downton large square Nut, Hort. Soc. Cat., No. 13. The fruit is large, short, 

 and obtusely 4-sided. — The Northampton Nut, Hort. Soc. Cat., No. 25. 

 Oblong fruit, very good. — The Northamptonshire Prolific, Hort. Soc. Cat., 

 No. 27., an oblong nut, middle-sized, with a thick shell, and very early. 



Description, §c. The common hazel nut is a large shrub, with numerous 

 stems rising from the root ; or a small bushy tree, with copious branches, 

 which are hairy or glandular when young. The bark is ash-coloured, and 

 sometimes cloven on the trunk, but of a clear bright brown, frequently spotted 

 with white on the branches. The leaves are roundish, stalked, and alternate : 

 they are of a darkish green, and slightly downy above ; but paler, and more 

 downy beneath. The male catkins are terminal and clustered; they are long 

 and pendulous, greyish, and opening in early spring, before the appearance of 

 the leaves. " The ovate scaly buds, containing the female flowers, become 

 conspicuous, at the same time, by their tufts of crimson stigmas. The nuts, 

 two or three from each bud, are sessile, roundish-ovate, and half-covered by the 

 jagged outer calyx of their respective flowers, greatly enlarged and permanent." 

 {Smith.) The rate of growth, under favourable circumstances, is from 1 ft. 6 in. 

 to 2 ft. for the first two or three years after planting; after which, if trained 

 to a single stem, the tree grows slower; attaining the height of 12ft. in 10 

 years, and never growing much higher, unless drawn up by other trees. It 

 grows remarkably well under the shade of other trees, but not under their 

 drip. Its shoots are completed early in the season ; and its leaves take their 

 rich yellow autumnal tint early in the autumn, remaining on a long time, and 

 only dropping off after a severe frost. Hence the great beauty of hazel cop- 

 pices, especially when mixed with a few evergreens, such as the holly, the 

 yew, and the box. Left to itself, it generally forms a huge bush, with num- 

 berless sucker-like branches proceeding from the root. When cut down to 

 the ground, it stoles with great luxuriance, forming shoots from 3 ft. to 6 ft. in 

 length the first season ; and its duration, when so treated, exceeds a century. 

 When treated as a tree with a single stem, it will probably live much longer. 

 The largest nut trees which we recollect to have seen in England are in 

 Eastwell Park, Kent ; where, drawn up among thorns, crab trees, and common 

 maples, they are upwards of 30 ft. high, with trunks 1 ft. in diameter at the 

 surface of the ground. 



Geography. The hazel is a native of all the temperate climates of Europe 

 and Asia. In Great Britain, it is found from Cornwall to Sutherlandshire -. 

 in the north of England, it attains to the elevation of 1 GOO ft. {Winch); and 

 it is found at about the same height on the hills of Forfarshire and Aberdeen- 

 shire. {Watson' 's Outlines, &c.) In Lochiel, Argyllshire, between 700 ft. and 

 800 ft. above the sea, there was, in 1832, a small wood of nut trees, producing 

 abundance of fruit, and some of them with trunks of above 1 ft. in circumfe- 

 rence. {Ibid.) The line oi' nuts on the Alps, between 45° and 46°, is stated by 

 H. C. Watson to rise to 3798 ft., the snow line being 9080 ft. In Sweden, 

 according to Professor Schouw, the hazel is found on the west side of He- 

 ligoland, in lat. 00° ; while on the eastern side of the great mountain range 

 it reaches to lat. 60 — 61°; and, though met with more to the northward, 

 in the Gulf of Bothnia, yet it does not there go beyond 03°. In short, it is 

 considered as not extending beyond the region of the beech. ( See Gard. Mag., 

 xii. p. 60.) Evelyn observes that the hazel " affects cold, barren, dry, and 

 sandy grounds ; mountainous, and even rocky, soils produce them ; they 

 prosper where quarries of freestone lie underneath, as at Hazelbury in Wilt- 

 shire, Hazelingfield in Cambridgeshire, Hazelmere in Surrey, and other places ; 

 but more plentifully if the ground be somewhat moist, dankish, and mossy, 

 as in the fresher bottoms and sides of hills, holts, and in hedgerows." 

 {Hunt. Evel. y i. p. 215.) In Kent, where the hazel abounds in all the native 

 woods, and where the cultivated varieties are to be found in most orchards, 



6 p 3 



