Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/568

 554 HAZEL communal college, and a normal school. There are manufactures of linen, thread, starch, soap, leather, and salt; breweries, tanneries, dye works, oil mills, and lime kilns. IIAZEL, the common name for shrubs or small trees of the genus corylus, which is by some botanists placed with the oak, chestnut, &c., in the order cupuliferce, while others make it the type of a small order co- rylaccce, comprising the hazel and the hornbeams. The name of the genus is an ancient one, and is sup- posed to be from the Greek n6pvc, a helmet, while the word hazel is referred by some to the Anglo-Saxon hcesel, bonnet. There are seven recognized species of the genus corylus, two of which are natives of North America. These are small, much branched shrubs, rarely over 6 ft. high, and very common along the edges of woods and by roadsides and in thickets. They are among the first plants to open their flowers in spring ; the staminate and pistillate flowers are in aments very dissimilar in appearance, and both upon the same plant ; the male or staminate flowers are in cylindrical pendulous aments 2 or 3 in. long, and consist of a wedge-shaped scale, be- neath which are about eight anthers ; being per- fectly formed the autumn before, these aments Hazel Flowers. Hazel Leaves and Fruit. are ready to open with the first warm days, and when quite in flower they are tremulous with every breeze and scatter their pollen profusely. The pistillate aments are small, and might be overlooked by a careless observer, as they ap- pear so much like buds. A close inspection will show a cluster of delicate crimson stigmas pro- jecting from the apex of the bud-like ament; the fertile flowers are very simple, consisting of an ovary with two elongated styles, placed in the axil of a scale and accompanied by tvo small bracts, which as the fruit matures in- crease rapidly in size, and ultimately form an envelope or husk which encloses it ; the fruit is a one-seeded nut with a bony shell and a large sweet kernel. The most abundant Amer- ican species is the common or American hazel, C. Americana, which has a nut about three fourths of an inch broad, somewhat less in length, and surrounded by a husk longer than itself, but which is open down to the nut ; this involucre consists of two leafy bracts, which are thick below, with their margins cut and fringed. This species extends from Canada to Florida and west of the Mississippi. The nuts vary in size and quality, but at the best are in- ferior to the imported. The beaked hazel, C. rostrata, is a smaller bush than the other, and mainly differs from it in the form of the husk, which closely surrounds the nut and is pro- longed beyond it into a long bristly beak ; its form has been compared to that of a long- necked bottle; the nuts are less pleasant to the taste. This is more common northward and upon mountains southward, and extends to the Pacific coast; a variety of it has even been found near the Amoor river in Asia. The most important corylm is C. Avellana, which pro- duces the well known imported filbert. The specific name is said to be from Abellina in Asia, which Pliny supposed to be its native country, but it is found wild in various parts of Europe and Asia, and to a limited extent in northern Africa. In its natural state the fil- bert forms a large bush, but by keeping down the suckers which it so abundantly produces it may be made to form a tree 20 or 30 ft. high. The filbert is largely cultivated in England and on the continent. This species has nearly the same general appearance as the American ha- zel bush, but the fruit is much larger, while the involucre or husk is not usually longer than the nut. _ It is but little cultivated in this country, and is only now and then seen in gardens, chief- ly as a curiosity. "With proper care in pruning there seems to be no obstacle to its cultivation here ; those who have tried it say that it yields abundantly. In England, where much atten- tion is given to their cultivation, the bushes are kept to the height of about 6 ft., and in their early growth are pruned with a view to pro- duce a great number of lateral branches, as it is upon these that the fruit is borne. There are 30 or 40 named varieties recorded, but not more than half a dozen are in general cultiva- tion. The name filbert, or "full-beard," is given to those with a long husk ; those with a short husk are called hazel-nuts, or simply nuts; while those with a short nut and a thick shell are known as cobs. Among the most valued varieties is the Cosford, which has a very long nut with a thin shell. In two of the esteemed