LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 
141 
Reconciliation, Hazel. 
“ 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 vigor crushes down the tree, 
Or shakes them ripe from the resigning husk.” 
Thomson. 
The hazel was said to have been imported into Italy from 
Pontus; hence the Roman name, nux pontica, which was 
changed later to nux avellana, from a Neapolitan city where 
it was cultivated. The filbert is not a distinct species, but 
a mere variety of hazel. 
Gower tells us, — 
“ Phillis 
Was shape into a nutte-tree, 
That all men it might see; 
And after Phillis, Philberd 
This tree was cleped.” 
But Rhind says filbert is a corruption of full-beard, a word 
applied to designate the large, fringed husk. As the wood 
of the hazel is very flexible, it is applied to various uses. 
Of it are made hoops for barrels, hurdles, fishing-rods, crates, 
poles, and walking-sticks. In Italy the chips are used to clear 
turbid wine. Withering informs us that in some places the 
twigs take the place of yeast. Hazel charcoal is prized by 
artists, as it draws freely, and rubs out easily. The caduceus 
of Mercury was supposed to be a hazel wand, given him by 
Apollo. 
Regret beyond tbe tomb, Asphodel. 
The ancients planted this flower beside tombs, and believed 
