386 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
1. Because they soon cover the ground with spawn, which 
requires grubhing up twice during the summer, creating expense ; 
2. They rob the nut-trees too much ; 3. They are frequently 
infested with green-fly, which make the nuts underneath foul by 
their droppings, rendering the nut less saleable and checking 
the growth of the young wood ; 4. They exclude sun and air 
too much ; and, lastly, they do not pay. 
A writer in the Gentleman'' s Magazine of 1788 says that 
in certain conditions of growth the trees may bear almost 
exclusively male or female flowers. Those produced at the first 
blossoming are stated to be female only, but their fertilisation 
may be secured by suspending amongst them a branch with 
male bloom. A better way, I think, is to grow a hedge of those 
nut-trees which generally bear a large quantity of catkins, and 
these trees, if allowed to grow high, will both answer the purpose 
of providing pollen for the female bloom and at the same time 
form a protection to the plantation. 
The Sorts of Filberts generally groiun. 
In Kent the Kent or Lambert's Cob is principally grown, also 
Cosford and the Red-skinned Filbert, and this last-named is 
grown in very many gentlemen's gardens throughout the country. 
Webb's Prize Cob Filbert is now very extensively grown ; it is a 
large, hardy, and most prolific variety, and always commands a 
good price in the market. The Cob Filberts, which are likely to 
become the Filberts of the future, are the last-mentioned, the 
Duke of Edinburgh (which was awarded a certificate by the 
Royal Horticultural Society, October 0, 1888), the new Cob 
Davianum, and the Improved Cosford Cob. There are many 
other good sorts of nuts grown, none of which, however, are 
likely to compete with the above. 
Enemies of the Filberts. 
Kaltenbach enumerates ninety-eight insects which attack 
nuts. Among these the beetle Balanimis nucnm, or nut-weevil, 
seen on Hazel and Filbert from the end of May till July, is very 
destructive to the nuts. The female lays an egg in the green, 
upi iglit, tender nut, on the kernel of which the larva subsists 
till September, when it bores its way throu.^li tlie shell and 
enters the cartli, to undergo transformation into a chrysalis: 
