184 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



ticularly in the Connecticut valley, where it attains a very large 

 size. It is of very rapid growth when young. 



From the bark of this tree an extract is made, which is 

 sometimes employed as a medicine, and is valued as a safe 

 purgative, peculiarly mild in its operation. The bark and the 

 nut- shel Is are also used to give a brown color to wool. The 

 Shakers at Lebanon dye a rich purple with it. Bancroft says 

 that the husks of the shells of the butternut and black walnut, 

 may be employed in dyeing a fawn color, even without mordants. 

 By means of them, however, greater brightness and durability 

 are given to the color. The bark of the trunk gives a black, 

 that of the root a fawn color, but less powerfully. From the 

 sap an inferior sugar has been obtained. The leaves, which 

 abound in acrid matter, have been used, in the form of powder, 

 as a substitute for Spanish flies. 



The young, half-grown nuts, gathered early in June, make 

 excellent pickles, and are much used for that purpose, the clam- 

 my down being removed, before pickling, by plunging them 

 in boiling water and rubbing with a coarse cloth. 



The wood is light, of a pale reddish color, of little strength, 

 but durable when exposed to heat and moisture, rather tough, 

 and not liable to the attacks of worms. For gun-stocks, it is 

 equally stiff, elastic, and tough with black walnut, but less hard. 



It makes beautiful fronts of drawers, as used by the Shakers 

 at Lebanon, and excellent light, tough, and durable wooden 

 bowls. In the western part of the State, coffins are often made 

 of it. Where abundant, it is used for posts and rails, and for the 

 smaller timbers in house frames. It is sometimes used for the 

 panels of coaches and other carriages, being pliable, not splitting 

 when nails are driven into it, and, from its porosity, receiving 

 paint extremely well. 



Michaux says that the butternut is found in Upper and Lower 

 Canada, on the shores of Lake Erie, in the States of Kentucky 

 and Tennessee, and on the banks of the Missouri. It occurs in 

 all the New England States, and in New York and Pennsyl- 

 vania. 



In Richmond, I measured a butternut tree which was thirteen 

 feet and three inches in circumference in the smallest place below 



