408 EDITORIAL NOTES. [Nov. 



The Sweet Chestnut a Native of Britain.- — This tree has 

 hitherto been believed to be a native of Asia Minor, and to have 

 been distributed over Europe and the British Islands in the progress 

 of civilization. But in a recent number of the Journal of Botany, Mr. 

 Iiidley states that there are reasons for supposing that it was 

 indigenous to Britain at a very remote period. Mr. Pddley's 

 supposition is founded on the fact that he obtained from a brick- 

 earth pit near Erith a piece of the wood of this tree along with 

 flint-flakes and rhinoceros bones. The two latter relics point to a 

 very remote past, but the coincidence of their being found in the 

 same spot with a fragment of the wood of the tree in question will 

 hardly be accepted in the absence of more convincing evidence, as 

 proof that the tree flourished during the time in which the 

 rhinoceros contended for possession of the earth with our flint-armed 

 ancestors. 



The Common Walnut {Juglans rcrjia). — Although this valuable 

 tree has been cultivated in this country from a very early period, 

 all its uses do not appear to be generally known. Besides the 

 hio-h value of the timber for purposes of manufacture, and the 

 "•eneral esteem in which the fruit is held either in the immature 

 state in the shape of pickles, or when ripe as a toothsome nut, the 

 sap of the tree yields an excellent sugar in the spring by tapping 

 the stem in the manner in which the birch and the maple are 

 tapped in Canada, the latter for sugar, the former for wine. The 

 yield is not large, only about two and a half pounds of sugar to a 

 hundred pounds of the juice. Wine is also made from the juice 

 thus obtained under fermentation. The kernels of the nuts contain 

 nearly a half of their weight of a white sweet-flavoured but inodorous 

 oil, which is in many parts of Germany extracted and used for 

 many purposes, formerly even being used as a substitute for butter ; 

 lout as it rapidly becomes rancid, its use for that purpose is 

 naturally limited. In some countries an infusion of the leaves is 

 Tecfarded as an excellent cure for itch and scrofula and many other 

 skin diseases, and the same infusion mixed with grease is said to be 

 an excellent hair restorer. Such are a few of the not generally 

 known virtues and uses of the common walnut tree, but un- 

 fortunately the tree is not without its bad repute. By some old 

 authors it is said to be dangerous to sleep or sit under its shade, 

 that it causes fever and coma ; there does not seem to be any direct 

 proof of this beyond the commonly-known fact that the strong 

 odour of this tree, when long endured by some, causes headache. 



