NUT-GROWING IN ENGLAND. 
383 
€altivatecl nuts are for the most part called Filberts. 
Derivation of the Name. 
The word Filbert, according to Junius and Skinner, is 
-corrupted from full and beard, or fall of beard, from its long 
beards or husks, whence it is called in Germany bart-nusz, i.e. 
beard-nut ; but according to Gower it is from Phillis, Phillis was 
shape into a nute-tree that all men might see ; and, after Phillis, 
Philberd this tree was cleped (called) in the Yerd." And we 
read in Spenser's Phillis, " Philbert there away compar'de with 
Mirtle and the bay." In German it is usually called " Nut from 
Lombardy " (nux Lombardica). But in Chambers's Etymological 
Dictionary we find : " Filbert, the fruit or nut of the cultivated 
Hazel (probably so called from St. Philibert, whose day fell in 
the nutting season, August 22 ; so in German it is Lambertsnuss, 
St. Lambert's nut)." 
When brought into Britain. 
At what period the large cultivated Filberts were brought 
into Britain is very uncertain. That it did not orignate here 
naturally, but was an imported plant, is evident from the name. 
It is not improbable that it was first introduced into the county 
of Kent, where it is more extensively cultivated than in any 
other part of the United Kingdom. 
Hoio projjagated. 
The Filbert can be propagated by suckers and layers and by 
grafting. When propagated by seed, they seldom, if ever, come 
true, not one in a hundred as a rule being worth growing, and 
a great loss of time has to be incurred in waiting for the fruit. 
Layers and suckers afford the strongest and earliest bearing 
trees. My own experience is that the best plants are obtained 
from layers, and I believe the Maidstone growers agree with me 
in this. The layers become well rooted in about twelve months, 
and then, after pruning, are bedded out in the nursery for two 
or three years. Grafted Filberts are less liable than others to be 
encumbered by suckers at the root. 
