OAK FAMILY. 



321 



place [Avella, near Naples] where they had been most successfully 

 propagated." The young forked twigs of this shrub constitute the cel- 

 ebrated divining rod with which certain iniposters beyond the Atlantic 

 pretend to discover the locahties of precious metals and subterranean 



fountains. The imposture, and the credulity on which it operated, have 

 both reached our shores ; but the Filbert not being indigenous here, a 

 capital substitute was discovered in the Witch Hazel (Hamamelis) ! 

 The twigs of Peach trees also, have been found to answer the purpose 

 nearly as well as the Witch Hazel ; and thus the occult sciences of ore- 



FiG. 220. A flowering branch of the cultivated Filbert or Hazel-nut (Corylus Avellana), 

 the staminate flowers in long aments, the pistillate ones in small bud-like clusters. 221. 

 A scale from the aments, showing the anthers beneath it. 222. A pistillate flower with 

 the involucre spread open. 223. A branch in fruit, the nut surrounded by the enlarged 

 Iftafy involucre. 



14^ 



