117 
THE HAZEL. 
CORVLUS AVELLANA. 
“ Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, 
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun, 
Conspiring with him how to load and bless 
With fruit the vines, that round the thatched eaves run; 
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage trees, 
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; 
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel-shells 
With a sweet kernel.’* 
The setting in of autumn is characterised by an in¬ 
crease of splendour in die general aspect of nature. 
How clear the cloudless sky! how deeply ting’d 
With a peculiar blue! the ethereal arch 
Iiow swell’d immense! amid whose azure thron d 
The radiant sun how gay ! how calm below 
The gilded earth! 
At this time die garden assumes a more showy ap¬ 
pearance than even summer boasts. The rose and 
the lily are followed, in quick succession, by hollyhocks, 
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