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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: HAN-HEG |
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HAZEL (0. Eng. hresell; cf. Ger. Hasel, Swed. and Dan. Kassel, &c.,; Fr. noiselier, coudrier) , botanically corylus, a genus of shrubs or low trees of the natural order Corylaceae. The common hazel, Corylus Avellana (fig. I), occurs throughout Europe, in North Africa and in central and Russian Asia, except the northernmost parts. It is commonly found in hedges and coppices, and as an undergrowth in woods, and reaches a height of some 12 ft.; occasionally, as at Eastwell Park, Kent, it may attain to 30 ft. According to Evelyn (Sylva, p. 35, 1664), hazels " above all affect cold, barren, dry, and sandy soils; also mountains, and even rockie ground produce them; but more plentifully if somewhat moist, dankish, and mossie.'' In Kent they flourish best in a calcareous soil. The bark of the older stems is of a bright brown, mottled with grey, that of the young twigs is ash-coloured, and glandular and hairy. The leaves are alternate, from 2 to 4 in. in length, downy below, roundish heart-shaped, pointed and shortly stalked. In the variety C. purpurea, the leaves, as also the pellicle of the kernel and the husk of the nut, are purple, and in C. heterophylla they are thickly clothed with hairs. In autumn the rich yellow tint acquired by the leaves of the hazel adds greatly to the beauty of landscapes. Tlie flowers
flowers
1 It has been supposed that the origin is to be found in O. Eng. has, a behest, connected with hatan = Ger. heissen, to give orders : the hazel-wand was .the sceptre of authority of the shepherd chieftain (Iroc,}v aawv) of olden times, see Grimm, Gesch. d. deutsch. Sprache, p. roi6, 1848. The root is kas-, cf. Lat. corulas, corylus; and the original
resembling leaf-buds, and have protruding crimson stigmas; the minute inner bracts, by their enlargement, form the palmately lobed and cut involucre or husk of the nut. The ovary is not visible till nearly midsummer, and is not fully developed before autumn. The nuts have a length of from i to f in., and grow in clusters. Double nuts are the result of the equal development of the two carpels of the original
The filbert,2 among the numerous varieties of Corylus Avellana, is extensively cultivated, especially in Kent, for the sake of its nuts, which are readily distinguished from cob-nuts by their ample involucre and greater length. It may be propagated by suckers and layers, by grafting and by sowing. Suckers afford the strongest and earliest-bearing plants. Grafted filberts are less liable than others to be encumbered by suckers at the root. By the Maidstone growers the best plants are considered to be obtained from layers. These become well rooted in about a twelvemonth, and then, after pruning, are bedded out in the nursery for two or three years. The filbert is economically grown on the borders of plantations or orchards, or in open spots in woods. It thrives most in a light loam with a dry subsoil; rich and; in particular, wet soils are unsuitable, conducing to the formation of too much wood. Plantations of filberts are made in autumn, in well-drained ground, and a space of about to ft. by 8 has to be allowed for each tree. In the third year after planting the trees may require root-pruning; in the fifth or sixth
bear well. The nuts grow in greatest abundance on the extremities of second year's branches, where light and air have ready access. To obtain a good tree, the practice in Kent is to select a stout upright shoot 3 ft. in length; this is cut down to about 18 in. of which the lower 12 are kept free from out-growth. The head is pruned to form six or eight strong offsets; and by judicious use of the knife, and by training, preferably on a hoop placed within them, these are caused to grow outwards and upwards to a height of about 6 ft. so as to form a bowl-like shape. Excessive luxuriance of the laterals may be combated by root-pruning, or by checking them early in the season, and again later, and by cutting back to a female blossom bud, or else spurring nearly down to the main branch in the following spring .Filbert nuts required for keeping must be gathered only when quite ripe; they may then he preserved in dry sand, or, after drying, by packing with asprinkling of salt in sound casks or newflower-pots. Their different forms include the Cosford, which are thin-shelled and oblong; the Downton, or large square nut, having a lancinated husk; the white or Wrotham Park filbert; and the red hazel or filbert, the kernel of which has a red pellicle. The last two, on account of their elongated husk, have been distinguished as a species, under the name Corylus tubulosa. Like these, apparently, were the nuts of Abella, or Avella, in the Campania (cf. Fr. aveline, filbert), said by Pliny to have been originally designated " Pontic," from their introduction into Asia and Greece from Pontus (see Nat_ Hist. xv. 24, xxiii. 78). Hazel-nuts, under the name of Barcelona or Spanish nuts, are largely exported from France and Portugal, and especially Tarragona and other places in Spain. They afford 6o% of a colourless or pale-yellow, sweet-tasting, non-drying oil, which has a specific gravity of 0.92 nearly, becomes solid at -19 C. (Cloez), and consists approximately of carbon 77, and hydrogen and oxygen each 11.5%. Hazel nuts formed part of the food of the ancient lake-dwellers of Switzerland and other countries of Europe (see Keller, Lake Dwellings, trans. Lee, 2nd ed., 1878). By the Romans they were sometimes eaten roasted. Kaltenbach (Pflanzenfeinde, pp. 633-638, 1874) enumerates ninety-eight insects which attack the hazel. Among these the beetle Balaninus nucum, the nut-weevil, seen on hazel and oak stems from the end of May till July, is highly destructive to the nuts. The female lays an egg in the unripe nut, on the kernel of which the larva subsists till September, when it bores its way through the shell, and enters the earth, to undergo transformation into a chrysalis in the ensuing spring . The leaves of the hazel are frequently found mined on the upper and under side respectively by the larvae of the ,moths Lithocolletis coryli and L. Nicelii. Squirrels and dormice are very destructive to the nut crop, as they not only take for present consumption but for a store
The Hebrew word luz, translated " hazel " in the authorized version of the English Bible (Gen. xxx. 37), is believed to signify " almond " (see Kitto, Cycl. of Bibl. Lit. ii. 869, and iii. 811, 1864). A belief in the efficacy of divining-rods of hazel for the discovery of concealed objects is probably of remote origin (cf. Hosea iv. 12). G. Agricola, in his treatise Vom Bergwerck (pp. xxix.-xxxi., Basel, 1557), gives an account, accompanied by a woodcut, of their employment in searching for mineral
mineral
The witch hazel is quite a distinct plant, Hamamelis virginica, of the natural order Hamamalideae, the astringent bark of which is used in medicine. It is a hardy
End of Article: HAZEL (0. Eng. hresell; cf. Ger. Hasel, Swed. and Dan. Kassel, &c.,; Fr. noiselier, coudrier) If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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