THE HAZEL. 



147 



bare; for the barren catkins expand almost imme- 

 diately after, and remain in flower all the winter. 



Dr. Plot relates, in his Natural History of 

 Oxfordshire," that some w^orkmen digging a pit at 

 Watlington Park, found, at a depth of fifty or 

 sixty feet, a large number of entire Oak-trees, 

 lying in confusion, and all along as they dug, 

 they met with plenty of Hazel-nuts, from within 

 a yard of the surface to the bottom of the pit, 

 which time''s iron teeth had not yet cracked ; and 

 that which amazed me most of all, I think they 

 lay thicker than ever they grew. The shells of 

 the nuts were very firm without, but nothing re- 

 mained within of a kernel, but a show of the dry 

 outer rind." 



A still more remarkable discovery of nuts was 

 made about twenty or thirty years since at Car- 

 rickfergus, Covmty Antrim, Ireland. These were 

 found in great numbers, and at various depths on 

 the sea-shore : the husk, in all that I examined, 

 had disappeared ; the shell was much softer than 

 in recent specimens, and liable to crack, unless 

 kept in water, and the kernel was converted into 

 a whitish semi-opaque stone. They were de- 

 cidedly of the same species as the common Hazel- 

 nut, and indeed were only to be distinguished 

 from the old nuts, which one commonly finds on 

 the ground in Hazel-copses, by their superior 

 weight. How they came into this situation and 

 were subsequently submitted to a partial conver- 

 sion into stone, are questions which have not 

 satisfactorily been accounted for. 



The Hazel is rarely found of a sufficient size 

 to supply building materials ; but the young rods 

 being tough and flexible, are much used for 



