THE HAZEL — continued. 
The Hazel is one of a small number of plants in which a remarkable method of 
fertilisation has been observed, known as chalazogamy . The pollen-tube, instead of 
entering the ovule, as in most Flowering Plants, by the little hole at its apex known 
as the micropyle , makes its way in near the structural base or chalaza of the ovule and 
thus reaches an extension of the embryo-sac. The significance of this remarkable 
process is not at present understood, but it may be a reversion to a very primitive 
mode of impregnation. 
The leaves of the Hazel are three to four inches long, broadly ovate, heart- 
shaped, and somewhat one-sided at the base, with irregularly serrate margins, a long 
point, and a downy under surface. In the bud they are folded into several 
longitudinal plaits, and, when young, are of a bright, pleasing green. Later on they 
become woolly and of a dull brownish shade that is heavy in the landscape, until 
relieved by the autumnal changes into yellow, dull orange, or, as poor John Clare 
described them, 
“ Red as the glow that morning’s opening warms.” 
The name Corylus is of Classical Greek origin but of uncertain etymology, 
though probably from Kopvs, korus , a cup, with reference to the leafy husk or 
“ cupule ” round the nut. The specific name Avellana is from the ancient Abella, 
now Avellino, in the Neapolitan Campania, where nuts are still much grown. This 
name has for us the additional interest of its association with that of the great 
English tree-planter, John Evelyn. He himself tells us that in some ancient 
records in his possession his ancestors’ names were written Avelan ; and it is, 
perhaps, a noteworthy coincidence that the fortunes of the family were made by the 
introduction of the making of gunpowder into England, and that Hazel was one of 
the chief woods used for the charcoal. 
Cheap fishing-rods and excellent walking-sticks are cut from the Hazel, the 
latter sometimes spirally distorted by the twining of honeysuckle. Its coppice- 
shoots are also used for hoops round casks and for the baskets used in our northern 
collieries known as “corves.” Wands of Hazel have frequently been found in the 
coffins of medieval ecclesiastics ; but the most mystic import attaching to it is the 
supposed necessity that the forked stick, known as the “ dowsing-rod ” or, par 
excellence , as “ the twig,” used in that curious survival of ancient divination by which 
water, precious metals, or criminals are alike supposed to be detected, should be 
of Hazel. 
