And we may finish the Hawthorn with a short account of its name, which is interesting:—"Haw," or "hay," is the same word as "hedge" ("sepes, id est, haies," John de Garlande), and so shows the great antiquity of this plant as used for English hedges. In the north, "haws" are still called "haigs;" but whether Hawthorn was first applied to the fruit or the hedge, whether the hedge was so called because it was made of the Thorn tree that bears the haws, or whether the fruit was so named because it was borne on the hedge tree, is a point on which etymologists differ.

FOOTNOTES:

[112:1] "Gilbert White in his 'Naturalists' Calendar' as the result of observations taken from 1768 to 1793 puts down the flowering of the Hawthorn as occurring in different years upon dates so widely apart as the twentieth of April and the eleventh of June."—Milner's Country Pleasures, p. 83.

HAZEL.

(1)Mercutio.Her [Queen Mab's] chariot is an empty Hazel-nut
Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub,
Time out o' mind the fairies' coachmakers.
Romeo and Juliet, act i, sc. 4 (67).
(2)Petruchio.Kate like the Hazel twig
Is straight and slender and as brown in hue
As Hazel-nuts and sweeter than the kernels.
Taming of the Shrew, act ii, sc. 1 (255).
(3)Caliban.I'll bring thee to clustering Filberts.
Tempest, act ii, sc. 2 (174).
(4)Touchstone.Sweetest Nut hath sourest rind,
Such a Nut is Rosalind.
As You Like It, act iii, sc. 2 (115).
(5)Celia.For his verity in love I do think him as concaveas a covered goblet or a worm-eaten Nut.
Ibid., act iii, sc. 4 (25).
(6)Lafeu.Believe this of me, there can be no kernel inthis light Nut.
All's Well that Ends Well, act ii, sc. 5 (46).
(7)Mercutio.Thou wilt quarrel with a man for cracking Nuts,having no other reason but because thou hast Hazel eyes.
Romeo and Juliet, act iii, sc. 1 (20).
(8)Thersites.Hector shall have a great catch, if he knock outeither of your brains; a' were as good cracka fusty Nut with no kernel.
Troilus and Cressida, act ii, sc. 1 (109).
(9)Gonzalo.I'll warrant him for drowning; though the shipwere no stronger than a Nut-shell.
Tempest, act i, sc. 1 (49).
(10)Titania.I have a venturous fairy that shall seek
The squirrel's hoard, and fetch thee new Nuts.
Midsummer Night's Dream, act iv, sc. 1 (40).
(11)Hamlet.O God, I could be bounded in a Nut-shell andcount myself a king of infinite space, were itnot that I have bad dreams.
Hamlet, act ii, sc. 2 (260).
(12)Dromio of Syracuse.Some devils ask but the parings of one's nail,
A Rush, a hair, a drop of blood, a pin,
A Nut, a Cherry-stone.
Comedy of Errors, act iv, sc. 3 (72).

Dr. Prior has decided that "'Filbert' is a barbarous compound of phillon or feuille, a leaf, and beard, to denote its distinguishing peculiarity, the leafy involucre projecting beyond the nut." But in the times before Shakespeare the name was more poetically said to be derived from the nymph Phyllis. Nux Phyllidos is its name in the old vocabularies, and Gower ("Confessio Amantis") tells us why—

"Phyllis in the same throwe
Was shape into a Nutte-tree,
That alle men it might see;
And after Phyllis philliberde,
This tre was cleped in the yerde"