ts. I am using
this hazel at present for grafting stock for choice foreign species and
varieties of other kinds, and for the American hazel, although it may be
that the American hazel will not respond well to so large and vigorous a
stock in the long run. Nuts and nursery stock may be obtained through
French nursery firms.

The reason why the Byzantine hazel has not been planted widely in
America as yet, is because we have not advanced that far in
civilization,--people have not happened to think about it. We must leave
something for the people who are to come five thousand years after us,
and not think of all good things at once.

The Byzantine hazel appears to be quite free from the blight and this,
perhaps, is due to its thick corky bark, which is in itself an
attractive feature. In some individuals the corky bark stands out in
ridges almost like that of the corky elm. The beauty of the European and
Asiatic hazels, in general, makes them extremely desirable for
ornamental purposes in parks and in dooryards.

One of the most attractive is the purple variety of _Corylus avellana_.
In many parts of Europe this is held to be desirable for its nuts, but
in Connecticut it is prone to flower so early in the season that the
elongated male catkins are caught by frost. I have seen elongated
catkins in a warm week at the end of February. A very desirable variety
of _Corylus avellana_ is one of which I now show specimens. The section
of the branch which I pass about carried four large nuts yesterday but I
find that one of them has disappeared, and it is probable that last
night in the sleeping car a squirrel got in when the porter was looking
the other way.

The specimen represents a seedling individual among a lot presented to
me by Prince Colloredo Mannsfeld of Bohemia nine years ago. This
particular shrub is rather homely, with small unattractive leaves and
big bony branches, but it bears heavily of large thin shelled hazels of
the highest quality, and the sort which are now bringing fifty cents per
pound in the New York market as green hazels. It blossoms very late in
the spring. I have not as yet given a name to this individual bush, but
as Professor J. Russell Smith caught my description of it and speaks of
it as "the bony-bush" we will allow his nomenclature to stand if members
of the Association wish to call for any of the wood for grafting or
budding purposes. _Corylus avellana_ in its many varieties is the chief
Eu