36 
WAYSIDE AND WOODLAND TREES. 
is only rarely that the seed-egg in each cell develops ; as a rule 
one shrivels, and the other develops into the sweet “ kernel ” of 
the Hazel-nut. The shell is the ovary that has become woody 
and hard ; the ragged-edged leathery “ shuck ” is the enlarged 
bracts that surrounded the minute flower. 
The Hazel likes a good soil, and will not really flourish without 
it, though it W'Xigrow almost anywhere, e.xcept where the moisture 
is stagnant. Its wood is said to be best when grown on a chalky 
subsoil. Of course, as timber, the Hazel does not count, but its 
tough and pliant rods and staves are valuable for many small 
uses, such as the making of hoops for casks, walking-sticks, and 
— divining-rods ! The bark is smooth and brown. 
The Barcelona nut, imported so largely in winter, is only a 
variety of the Hazel ; as also the Cob and the Filbert, so largely 
cultivated in Kent. The name is the Anglo-Saxon hcEsl, or 
hcEsel, and signifies a baton of authority, from the use of its rods 
in driving cattle and slaves. 
The Lime {Tilia platyphyllos). 
Those persons who obtain their ideas of trees mainly from 
the specimens they can see in suburban roads and gardens are 
in danger of getting quite a false impression of the Lime. It is 
a long suffering, good-tempered tree, and like human individuals 
of similar temperament, is subjected to shameful treatment. 
The suburban gardener who has a row of Limes to trim uses 
the saw, and amputates every arm close up to the shoulder, so 
that when the season of budding and burgeoning arrives the 
row of Limes will look like an upward extension in green of the 
brick wall. Such are the atrocities upon which Suburbia has 
to base its ideas of one of the most imposing of trees. 
The Large-leaved Lime, growing in park-land or meadow, 
with its roots deep in good light loam, and its head eighty or 
