THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



83 



THE HAZEL. 



(Corylus avellana.) 



By J. P. SOUTTER. 



In the depth of winter when the gelid earth is hard as iron, and the merry 

 rivulets of summer are silent in the embrace of the stern frost king, when the 

 shivering trees stand bare and leafless in the angry blast, gaunt skeletons of 

 their former majesty, testing our faith in the revivifiying power of Nature. 

 But yet — 



" The close buds 

 That lie along the boughs, instinct with life, 

 Patient, awaiting the soft breath of spring," 



will awake responsive to its benign influences. 



" And then the fiery sap, the touch from God 

 Careering through the tree, dilates the bark 

 And roughs with scale and knob, before it strikes 

 The summer foliage out in a green flame." 



At this untoward season, and in the midst of such inclement surroundings, the 

 hardy hazel may be seen displaying its blossoms to the keen and nipping air. 



" Startling the loiterer in the naked groves 

 With unexpected beauty, for the time 

 Of blossoms and green leaves is yet afar." 



At this period the hazel is very ornamental with its numerous clusters of 



long, slender, pendulous yellow catkins, and its bright rosy pink stigmas 



peeping out from the encircling scales in which they are snugly enfolded. 



But it requires an enthusiastic love of nature to tempt the city denizen to the 



woods at this ungenial season, and to such the hazel is most familiar in 



autumn, when covered with its umbrageous foliage, and laden with its husky 



fruit, the gathering of which, in the sunny days of the waning year, form the 



chief charm of many an autumn holiday. 



" Ye swains, now hasten to the hazel bank, 

 Where, down yon dale, the wildly winding brook 

 Falls hoarse from steep to steep. In close array 

 Fit for the thickets and the tangling shrub. 

 Ye virgins, come. For you their latest song 

 The woodlands raise ; the clustering nuts for you 

 . The lover finds amid the secret shade ; 



And where they burnish on the topmost bough, 

 With active vigour crushes down the tree, 

 Or shakes them ripe from the resigning husk." 



The hazel belongs to the Natural Order, Cupuliferce, so named from the 

 sup-like involucre in which the fruit is enclosed. It is the Amentiferce of 



