yearly rainfall, 52-4 inches. The climate is very healthy, but rheumatism, fever,and dysentery are not unconimon; cholera is rare.
The history of the district is involved in obscurity until 1755, about which time a certain Mukund Sinh was chief of the country. In a few years he was superseded by a Tej Sinh, who had gained the assistance of the British. In 1780 Hazaribagh, along with the surrounding territory, passed under direct British rule.
Hazáribágh, the chief town and administrative head- quarters of the above district, is picturesquely situated on the high central plateau of the district, at an elevation of 2000 feet above sea-level, and in the midst of a group of conical hills, 23° 59’ 21” N. lat. and 85° 24’ 32” E. long. The town is little more than a cluster of villages, with intervening cultivation, which have sprung up round the military bézdr. Hazaribagh has been the military head- quarters of the district since 1780, and the seat of civil aduiinistration since 1834. The cantonment lies south- east of the town. Population in 1872, 11,050 (6312 males, 4738 females):—Hindus, 7240; Mahometans, 3384; Christians, 52; “others,” 374.
HAZEBROUCK, a town of France, capital of an arron- dissemeut of the same name in the department of Nord, is situated on the Bourre, 32 miles W.N.W. of Lille, in a district formerly covered with marshes, It stands on the Lille and Calais Railway, at the junction of the branch from Dunkirk. The town is governed by a sub-prefect, and has a court of primary instance with two juges de paix, besides various offices of excise and inland revenue. ‘There are numerous religious and charitable societies including the Fréres des Kcoles Chrétiens, Sceurs de Charité, and Dames de la Sainte Union. The convent of Capuchins, built near the town in 1854, is now occupied by a school. Haze- broick contains some handsome public buildings, as the church of St Nicolas, with a tower 260 feet high, of fine open work, built about 1520, the hétel de ville (1807— 1813), the prison for the department, two theatres, and the communal college. The Augustinian convent, built in the 16th century, with a facade of the 17th century, is now occupied in its several parts by the hospital, a tobacco- warehouse, 2 market, and college lecture-rooms. A chamber of agriculture meets in the town, where there are also a small public library and a secondary school. The prin- cipal manufactures are linen cloth, thread, soap, beer, oil, lime, aud salt. There are also tanneries, salt-refineries, corn-mills, and dye-works, Trade in country produce, cattle, timber, and hops is also carried on. Population (1876) of the district 9857, of the town 6363.
HAZEL (Anglo-Saxon, (esel ;[1] German, Z/asel; French, Voisetier, Coudrier), Corylus, Tournef., a genus of shrubs or low trees of the natural order Cupuliferce and sub-order Corylee. The common hazel, Corylus Avellana, L., is dis- tributed 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 under- growth in woods, and reaches a height of some 12 fect; occasionally, as at Eastwell Park, Kent, it may attain to 30 feet. 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 inches in length, downy below, roundish-cordate, pointed, and shortly petiolate ; occasionally they are found with the margins coherent at the base, or with the disk so depressed as to form a pitcher-like structure (Masters). 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. The flowers are moncecious, and appear iu Great Britain in February and March, before the leaves, and sometimes in October {Loudon). The cylindri- cal, drooping, and yellow male catkins (see Botany, vol. iv. p. 123, fig. 161) are 1 to 24 inches in length, and occur 2 to 4 in a raceme; when in unusual numbers they may be terminal in position. The female flowers are small, sub- globose, and sessile, resembling leaf-buds, and have protrud- ing crimson stigmas; the minute inner bracts, by their enlargement, form the palmately lobed and cut involucre or husk of the nut. The ovary is uot visible till nearly midsummer, and is not fully developed before autunin. The nuts have a length of from 4 to ? inch, and grow in clusters. Double or treble nuts are che result of the equal development of two or all the three carpels of the original flower, of which ordinarily two become abortive. Fusion of two or more nuts is not uncommon, and Masters gives an instance of the union of as many as five. Fromm tlie light-brown or brown colour of the nuts the terms hazed and hazelly, z.e., “in hue as hazel nuts” (Shakespeare, 7'um- ing of the Shrew, ii. 1), derive their significance.[2] The wood of the hazel is whitish-red, close in texture, and pliant, aud has when dry a weight of 49 Ib per cub. foot; it has Leen used in cabinet-making, and for toys and turned articles, Curiously veined veneers are obtained from the rovts; and the root-shoots are largely employed in the making of crates, coal-corves or baskets, hurdles, withs and bands, whip- handles, and other objects. The rods are reputed to be most durable when from the driest ground, and to ke especi- ally good where the bottom is chalky. The light charcoal afforded by the hazel serves well for crayons, and is valued by gunpowder manufacturers. An objection to the cun- struction of hedges of hazel is the injury not infrequently done to them by the nut-gatherer, who “ with active vigour crushes down the tree” (Thomson’s Seasons, “ Autunm ”), and otherwise damages it.
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 (see Arboriculture, ii. 322) by sowing. Suckers afford the strongest and earliest-bearing plants. Crafted 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 fur two or three years, The filbert may be economically grown on the borders of planta- tions 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 10 feet by § has to be allowed for each tree. Ground good for hops is good also for filberts, according to Williamson, who recom- mends old woollen rags as the best manure for the latter (“On the Cultivation of the Filbert,” Zrans. Lort. Soc., iv. 145). In the third year after planting the trees may require root-pruning ; in the fifth or sixth they should bear well, The nuts grow in greatest abundance on the extre-
mities of second year’s branches, where light and air have
- ↑ Derived, it has been supposed, from Ang.-Sax. hors, a behest, con- nected with Ahatan = Germ. heissen, to give orders: the hazel-wand was the sceptre of authority of the shepherd chieftain (zromqy Aadv) of olden times. See Grimm, Gesch. d. deutsch. Sprache, p. 1016, 1848,
- ↑ On the expression ‘‘ hazel cyes,’’ see Votes and Queries, 2d ser., xii. 337, and 3d ser., iii. 18, 39.
- ↑ For derivations of the word sec Latham’s Johnson’s Dictionary.
