Corylus, hazel tree , a small tree which is common in woods, hedges, and most uncultivated sites. It is also called ‘noisetier’, though this name is applied more specifically to species which are cultivated for their fruit. The hazel is so well known that we will simply state that it grows several stems from it base which are generally upright, that its leaves, which are more round than oval, are among the largest of all forest trees, and that its striking, yellow catkins first announce the return of the sap and the approach of spring in woodlands. The hazel is hardy, grows promptly, propagates readily, and springs up in any site.

Indeed, the hazel thrives in all soil conditions and is most commonly found in soil which is sandy, sterile, cold, or dry. It also grows on mountain ridges, among rocks, and even in clay, but it prefers soil which is poor, sandy, damp, and mossy, in which its roots are more long lived, and where I have seen some aged specimens of forty feet tall and over two feet round which had not yet begun to decay.

The hazel, of which the wood is not without use, may therefore be used to populate sterile soil which good trees cannot tolerate. Sowing is quickest method of making large plantations of this tree, but one should not plant too early in autumn, in order to avoid frost which ruins them and, even more importantly, the inevitable drawback of finding at the end of winter that the nuts have been eaten by worms, rats, field mice, etc., which are partial to them. Furthermore, hazelnuts do not germinate until spring, until which time it is therefore preferable to conserve them in sand and sow them in February in the same manner as acorns. See Oak. The hazel may also be propagated by several other methods which I will describe in article Noisetier along with the different species and their cultivation. The hazel rarely fails to take root again following transplantation and provides a dense covering in woods. Evelyn even claims that it profits more than any other tree from being planted in coppices. [1] It bears fruit only after six or seven years.

Hazelnuts are more palatable and wholesome when they are gathered as soon as they are fully formed than when their perfect ripeness causes them to fall from the tree, because the aqueous part of the fruit is then already oleaginous, and becomes increasingly so until it begins to dry up, at which point one may extract an oil from it which is not without use. The ancients claimed that hazelnuts were fattening, but the moderns concede only that they are more nourishing than walnuts and that if they are eaten in moderation they are harmless provided that one has a strong stomach, but that they are hard to digest, impede respiration, and make the voice hoarse. See Hazelnut.

Unlike other woods, hazel wood is more useful when it is less broad, though it is generally suitable only for small uses which do not deserve a mention. It is mainly used for making barrel hoops because it is straight, supple, and without knots, but it has so little solidity and durability that it is used only when there is no alternative. However, I have ascertained by undertaking a number of experiments at Montbard in Burgundy that this wood lasts three times longer if it is felled when the leaves are falling than if felling is delayed until winter or the beginning of spring.

Since authors have for so long abused our credulity by attributing supernatural powers to the hazel, it would be a further outrage to fill this article with the illusory and superstitious properties of the divining rod. [2] This is an ancient imposture which has fallen into discredit as fewer people become imbued with ancient prejudices, with the result that there are fewer dupes. See Noisetier.

Notes

1. Corylus avellana was formerly widespread in coppices. See D. J. Mabberley, The Plant-book: a Portable Dictionary of the Vascular Plants (Cambridge, 1997), 186.

2. The hazel figured prominently in classical and Christian texts: from the time of Pliny, hazel wood was used to make water-divining rods, and Saint Patrick was purported to have purged Ireland of venomous snakes by waving a wand of this wood (ibid.).