222 



A DISCOURSE 



BOOK I. 2. But if you would make a grove for pleasure^ plant them in fosses, 

 "^^"^^"^^ at a yard distance, and cut them within half a foot of the earth, dressing 

 them for three or four springs and autumns, by only loosening the mould 

 a little about their roots. Others there are who set the nuts by hand at 

 one foot distance, to be transplanted the third year, at a yard asunder : 

 But this work is not to be taken in hand so soon as the nuts fall, nor till 

 winter be well advanced, because they are exceedingly obnoxious to the 

 frosts ; nor will they sprout till the spring ; besides, vermine are great 

 devourers of them. Preserve them therefore moist, not mouldy, by laying 

 them in their own dry leaves, or in sand, till January. 



Plantis edurae Coryli nascuntur georg. ii. 1. 65, 



Hasels from sets and suckers take. 



3. From whence they thrive very well, the shoots being about the 

 scantling of small wands and switches, or somewhat bigger, and such as 

 have drawn divers hairy twigs, which are by no means to be disbranched, 

 no more than their roots, unless by a very sparing and discreet hand. 

 Thus your coryletum, or copse of Hasels, being planted about autumn, 

 may, as some practise it, be cut within three or four inches of the ground 

 the spring following, which the new cion will suddenly repair in clusters, 

 and tufts of fair poles of twenty, or sometimes thirty feet long : But 

 I rather should spare them till two or three years after, when they shall 

 have taken strong hold, and may be cut close to the very earth, the 

 improsperous and feeble ones especially. Thus are Filberts likewise to 

 be treated, both of them improved much by transplanting, but chiefly by 

 graffing ; and it should be tried with Filberts, and even with Almonds 

 themselves^ for more elegant experiments. 



In the mean time, I do not confound the Filbert, Pontic, or Filbord, 

 distinguished by its beard, with our foresters or bald Hasel-nuts, which 

 doubtless we had from abroad, and bearing the names of Avelan, Avelin, 

 as I find in some ancient records and deeds in my custody, where my 

 ancestor's names were written Avelan, alias Evelin, generally. 



4. For the place ; they above all affect cold, barren, dry, and sandy 

 grounds : mountains, and even rocky soils produce them ; they prosper 

 where quarries of freestone lie underneath, as at Haselbury in Wilts, 



