NOTES ON THE HAZELS

DR. ROBERT T. MORRIS, NEW YORK CITY

The hazels are descended from an ancient and honorable family.  Impressions of leaves found in the Upper Cretaceous rocks of the Yellowstone Valley cannot be distinguished from those of the leaves of our two American hazel species of today.

The hazels belong to the Cupuliferae or oak family.  Our American species are only two in number, although there are many varieties of the species.  The one which is most prized, Corylus americana, is found over a wide range of territory and abundantly in many places between Canada and the southern extremity of the Appalachians, and from the central Mississippi valley to the Atlantic coast.

This species bears nuts of excellent quality for the most part, but of rather small size and thick shell, excepting in individual plants.  The common American hazel, while valuable for hybridizing purposes, will probably never be cultivated to any great extent, because of its habit of growth.

The characteristic life history in the Eastern States is as follows:  A hazel plant bears a few nuts in its third year, a fairly large crop in its fourth year, a heavy crop in its fifth year, a very few nuts in its sixth year and it dies at the seventh or eighth year of age.  Meanwhile, the plant has been sending out long stoloniferous roots which have surrounded the original plant with a chaplet of progeny, each one of which follows the life course of the parent.

One hazel plant when left free to its own devices may increase in this way rapidly enough to drive cows out of a pasture lot.  I have trimmed off stoloniferous roots experimentally from a number of hazel plants, for the purpose of throwing all of the strength into the original stocks, hoping, thereby, to prolong their lives.  This, however, appears not to be effective, as the stocks died at their appointed time.

Like many other wild plants, not yet subjected to processes of cultivation, the common American hazel does not respond very readily to cultivation, and too much attention on the part of the horticulturist leads it into confusion.

Some years ago I expended about six weeks in making a study of fruiting hazels and examined many thousands of bushes in Rhode Island, Connecticut and eastern New York state, including Long Island.

In the regions visited, the native hazels are so abundant as to be considered a pest.  Out of all the bushes examined, I saved but three for purposes of propagation.  The best one of these for size, quality and thinness of shell, I have named the Merribrooke, and young plants of this variety will be sent to any member of the Association who wishes to cultivate them.  Bushes of this particular wild variety have had a reputation among the boys of the locality for more than a hundred years, according to legends of the neighborhood.  I have recently budded specimens of this variety upon stocks of the Byzantine hazel, in the hope of prolonging the life of an individual plant beyond its normal seven or eight years.