OCTANDRIA. TRIGYNIA. Polygonum. 493 
TRIGYNIA. 
POLYG'ONUM.* Cal. none: Bloss. resembling a cup with 
five divisions : Seed one, angular, generally naked. 
‘‘Two Hazel-nuts I threw into the flame, 
And to each nut I gave a sweetheart’s name, 
This with the loudest bounce me sore amazed, 
That in a flame of brightest colour blazed. 
As blazed the nut, so may thy passion grow ; 
For twas thy nut that did so brightly glow.” 
And among various prognostics, we find in Kal. Rust. 1687— 
“Observe when first the Nuts begin to bloom, 
And flourishing, bend the tender branch ; if these 
Prove fruitful, such shall be thy corn’s encrease. 
And in great heat huge harvests shall be found; 
But if with swelling leaves the shades abound, 
Then shalt thou thrash a chaffy stalk in vain.” 
An observation of high antiquity; for Virgil of the Walnut-tree says, 
“ Si superant foetus, pariter frumenta sequentur.” 
The gallantry of the same great poet would exalt the homely Hazel to at least equal 
honour with the vine, the myrtle, or the bay : for 
“ Phyllis amat Corylos; illas dum Phyllis amabit, 
Nec myrtus vincet Corylos , nec laurea Phoebi.” Ecl.vii. 
“The Cyprian queen delights in myrtle groves; 
With Hazel Phyllis crowns her flowing hair; 
And while she loves that common wreath to wear, 
Nor bays, nor myrtle boughs with Hazel shall compare.” 
On this subject that accurate observer of nature, Mr. White, has the following interesting 
remarks: “The squirrel, (accumulating them in large hordes for winter provender), the 
field mouse, and the bird called the nut-hatch, ( Sitta Europeea), live much on Hazel 
nuts, and yet they open them each in a different way. In these instances instinct is 
perfectly uniform and consistent. The first, after rasping off the small end, splits the 
shell in two with his long fore teeth, as a man does with his knife; the second nibbles a 
hole with his teeth, so regular as if drilled with a wimble, and yet so small that one would 
wonder how the kernel can be extracted through it; while the last picks an irregular 
ragged hole with its bill : but as this artist has no paws to hold the nut firm while he 
pierces it, like an adroit workman, he fixes it, as it were in a vice, in some cleft of a tree, 
when standing over it, he perforates the stubborn shell.” Cowley presents us with a lively 
picture of the squirrel desporting in his favourite haunt. 
-“—— “ Upon whose nutty top 
A squirrel sits, and wants no other shade 
Than what by his own spreading tail is made; 
He culls the soundest, dextrously picks out 
The kernels sweet, and throws the shells about.” E.) 
An expressed oil is obtained from them, for the use of painters.—Goats and horses eat 
the leaves; sheep and swine refuse them.—The Brindle Spider and December Moths; 
Phaleena Populi , Pavonia, Psi , Gonostigma , Attelabus Coryli, Curculio Nucurn , (living 
on the kernels; (also Rhynchites Bacchus, rare,i?. pubescens, Apion nigritarse , Orchestes 
Avellance , and according to Kirby, that very uncommon insect Apion rnjicorne , are found 
(From 7roXvf, many; and yovu,the knee ; having numerous ‘ge simulations. E.) 
