312 On the Fertilization of the Female Blossoms of Filberts. 



influence, was, to proceed without delay in quest of some 

 male flowers of the common Hazel ; which I accordingly did, 

 and after searching some sheltered parts of the neighbouring 

 lanes, I at length found on some very old wood, a few sprays 

 of catkins just beginning to open. These I gathered, brought 

 home with care, and immediately suspended on the upper 

 part of one of my Filbert trees the most to windward. In a 

 day or two after, I repeated my search, and obtained a few 

 more, and so continued whenever I took a walk, to bring 

 home a few small branches bearing expanding catkins, and to 

 hang them up upon different parts of my Filbert trees, for 

 the space of a week or ten days ; when the frost, which 

 had been very severe in the early part of the preceding 

 month of January, again set in with increased severity, so 

 much so, indeed, that it killed and scorched up nearly all 

 the catkins of the Hazel, even those which had not shed 

 their dust, and I entertained little doubt that the female 

 blossoms of my Filberts had shared the same fate ; but it 

 proved otherwise. In the course of the summer, perceiving 

 some appearance of fruit, I gave orders, that no person 

 should gather a Filbert from my trees ; these, I have no 

 doubt, were strictly observed. At the time of ripening, I 

 collected the whole of the crop myself, and immediately 

 weighed it. The weight was exactly two pounds. Now, 

 although this would seem to be but a moderate crop for 

 two Filbert trees (or rather bushes, for each has several stems) 

 which had been growing nearly or quite twenty years, yet, 

 it was more than they had ever produced before, not only in 

 any one year, but (I believe I may venture to say) in all the 

 years of their previous existence, and, if I calculate rightly, 



