"tree" in Zemblan is grados. 

(CK’s note to JS’s line 49: Shagbark)

While keeping in mind the eight Hamadryad sisters :Karya (Walnut or Hazelnut); Balanos (Oak);Kraneia (Dogwood);Morea (Mulberry);Aigeiros (Black Poplar);Ptelea (Elm);Ampelos (Vines, especially Vitis) and Syke (Fig),  I decided to check for a botanical link between Ampelos (Vine) and Karya (Walnut or Hazelnut). There was none.

Nevertheless, because I’d followed my initial impulse I first explored the scientific classification of John Shade's favorite tree: the shagbark, using the Wikipedia.  Surprise, surprise. The shagbark and the hazelnut/walnut are connected but only through a perspective that considers the Hamadryad sisters.

The Shagbark hickory is "Carya ovate," classified as Plantae, Angiosperm Eudicot, Rosid, of the order of Fagales. Its family is Juglandaceae and the genus is Carya.   The Hazel “Corylus avellana”, like the Shagbark, belongs among the Angiosperms, Eudicots, Rosids, Fagales but, here, the connections seem to end for it belongs to the family of the Betulaceae. Its genus is Corylus and, therefore, the “Carya ovata” is not of the same species as the “Corylys avellana.” However, the Hamadryad Karya represents not only the hazelnut but also the walnut!  This is how the shagbark hickory’s designation “Carya ovata” relates to the Karya nymph. For Carya “comes from the Greek name for walnut.Ovata comes from the Latin word meaning egg-shaped”  and it is the walnut (that belongs to the Juglandaceae family, like the shagbark) - not the hazel - that provides the connection between the two Hamadryad sisters.

There’s no doubt in my mind that V.Nabokov related the Vine and the Hazel plants through the Hamadryad sisters Karya and Ampelos, despite their biological distinction.

But in that case, Hazel Shade would be connected to her father’s waxwing, to CK’s sampel and to the assassin Gradus! It seems to be too far-fetched. But the connections are there and they are too intricately real to be merely coincidental -  unless there’s  plexed artistry involved in the thread that runs through “Pale Fire” plotting it beyond V.Nabokov’s wildest dreams.

Btw: I chose to explore the shagbark following a few references to it in John Shade’s poem, particularly to the “phantom of (his) little daughter’s swing” (cf. in particular lines 49,57 and 990):

                                                  I had a favorite young shagbark there

                                            ⁵⁰   With ample dark jade leaves and a black, spare,

                                                  Vermiculated trunk. The setting sun

                                                  Bronzed the black bark, around which, like undone

                                                  Garlands, the shadows of the foliage fell.

                                                  It is now stout and rough; it has done well.

                                                  White butterflies turn lavender as they

                                                  Pass through its shade where gently seems to sway

                                                  The phantom of my little daughter’s swing.

                                                  Where are you? In the garden. I can see

                                           ⁹⁹⁰   Part of your shadow near the shagbark tree.

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