198 
The Garden Magazine, May, 1920 
“ Full-beards” or Filberts and Cob-nuts. Both Red and White 
Filberts are much grown in Kent, England, and are esteemed 
because they admit of being kept fresh in the husks. 
According to the books the Filbert was first known of from 
Pontus on the Asia Minor shores of the Black Sea, and as 
called by the ancient Greeks “Nux pontica.” The Cob-nuts 
are short and roundish and have a thick shell, the most familiar 
being the Barcelona nuts of commerce. A form with large 
nuts is known in England as the Kentish Cob. Some consider 
the Cob-nuts to belong to a separate species known as C. pontica 
but this seems doubtful. The other European species (C. 
maxima) is a large shrub confined to southern Europe, and a 
recent view is that the Filberts are hybrids between this and 
C. avellana. There is also C. intermedia, a hybrid between the 
common C. avellana and C. colurna, which has been known 
in Europe since about 1836 but is still rare. It is fairly inter- 
mediate in character, though the nut is more like that of C. 
colurna. 
Of the three American species C. rostrata is most widely 
spread and grows throughout Canada, from the east coast to 
British Columbia, and in this country as far south as Virginia 
and west to Minnesota. It is a bush of moderate height pro- 
ducing suckers freely. The husk completely encloses the nut 
and is contracted beyond into a long tube. Another species 
(C. californica) grows in Colorado and westward through north- 
ern California, Oregon and Washington, and differs in having 
the husk terminate in a very short tube. The remaining species 
(C. americana) has a roundish nut contained in an open husk 
with jagged almost fringed margins. This is a broad shrub from 
5 to 12 feet tall, distributed from New England southward to 
West Virginia and westward to Mississippi, Arkansas, and South 
Dakota. 
T HESE native species of Hazel nut have been neglected and 
ought to be taken in hand for orchard culture. The three 
Tree Hazels all have roundish nuts with thick, hard shells and 
small kernels and need to be much improved before they have 
value as nut trees. The Himalayan C. ferox and the Chinese 
C. tibetica have spiney husks resembling those of the Chestnut 
and are unpromising subjects for the nut growers. The two 
bush Hazels of Eastern Asia (C. heterophylla and C. Sieboldii), 
each of which has several recognized varieties, are worthy of 
notice for both are hardy in the Arnold Arboretum and will 
undoubtedly some day play a part in nut culture in this country, 
The first has leaves variable in shape, as its name indicates, and 
an equally variable husk which is lacinated and often crested 
but open at the summit exposing the roundish thick-shelled 
nut. It is a low bush seldom 
more than 6 feet high — usually 
less — which suckers freely and 
is a particular feature of open 
mountain slopes in Korea. It 
is also widespread in Japan, 
the Amur region, Manchuria 
and northern China. In cen- 
tral and western China it is 
represented by the varieties 
sutchuenensis and yunnanen- 
sis, which are large bushes often 
20 feet tall, and differ in tech- 
nical characters. 
The other species (C. Siebol- 
dii) resembles the American C. 
rostrata in that the husk com- 
pletely encloses the nut and, 
moreover, is contracted above 
the apex of the nut into a nar- 
row tube often twice as long 
as the nut itself. Several var- 
ieties, based largely on the 
length and shape of the husk, 
have been distinguished. On Quelpaert, a volcanic island off 
the south coast of Korea, grows a small fruited form in which the 
husk is contracted into a very short beak. This has been named 
C. hallaisanensis. Siebold’s Hazel is a large bush, similar in 
habit and foliage to the European C. avellana and is widely 
distributed in Japan and on the mainland of Eastern Asia 
westward to the Chino-Thibetan borderland. 
All nut fruits are much sought by squirrels and other 
rodents who store them and thus help to distribute them; for, 
though they take heavy toll, they seldom devour all. Never- 
theless, trees which bear a nut fruit are handicapped in the strug- 
gle for existence; and sometimes one is tempted to believe that 
Mother Nature made a mistake when she evolved this particular 
kind of fruit. However, man, as well as the rodent, should be 
thankful — for nuts supply a goodly portion of the race with a 
wholesome dietary — and are capable of yielding much more if 
given attention. 
And a Handful of Others 
I N THE case of succulent fruits man has for some reason, from 
the dim and distant early days, striven to improve their size 
and flavor; and his efforts have been abundantly rewarded. 
But with nut fruits the story is different. Almost nothing has 
been done to develop quality and abundance in these, though 
undoubtedly primitive man ate the acorn, walnut, hazelnut, 
hickory, pecan, and pine-nut long before he did the succulent 
fruits. The acorn has fallen generally into disfavor, however, 
though the peasants in Spain still eat that of Quercus ballota 
as in the days of Don Quixote. The North American Indians 
also eat the acorn of certain Oaks; but so far as American people 
are concerned the acorn will never come back as an article of 
food. It is of interest, in passing, that the Oak species is much 
distributed by waterfowl — strange as it may seem — who swal- 
low the acorns and eject them whole. 
The nuts of the European and some other Beech trees are 
of fair size, sweet and good flavored, yet are eaten only sparingly 
by the peasantry. The seeds of the Swiss Pine (Pinus cembra) 
are eaten in Europe, and in Siberia they are a very important 
article of food. The same is true of the Korean Nut-Pine (P. 
koraiensis). The kernels of this Pine mixed with honey make a 
delicious sweetmeat. In western North America (including 
Mexico) the seeds of several species of Pine are eaten, especially 
those of the Sugar Pine (P. Lambertiana). 
For all of this, however, selection and cross-breeding among 
nut fruits has only quite recently begun to receive attention. 
The European Hazelnut has been selected and such forms as 
the Cob and Filbert have 
been established, and prob- 
ably the Walnut has also been 
subject to like treatment; but 
it is only to-day, especially in 
this country, that the culture 
and breeding of nut trees are 
beginning to receive real at- 
tention. Doubtless the future 
will see a tremendous advance 
in these fruits. In every case, 
as it is the fleshy kernel which 
is sought, 1 have not for the 
purpose of this article confined 
myself to strict botanical mor- 
phology. The term “nut” 
includes any edible kernel, 
whether it be part of the seed 
as in the Ginkgo, or of a fruit 
as in the Hazelnut; and 
whether the outer covering 
be hard and woody, as in the 
Walnut, or thin and fibrous, 
as in the Chestnut. 
A REALLY HANDSOME BUSH IS THE COMMON HAZEL 
