HARDWOOD RECORD 



A 



or only slightly rounded. 

 round, simple pits (Fig. 7, 



In bntt«<rnut the Hlitlike pits in (lie 

 liloTH in eiirlywooil are o'llimii'. 



Wiioil piirenc-hynm fibers (Pint" II, ic. 

 /I. /. ) oi;-iir more spurin^ly in lilnck 

 tvalniit wood tlinn in nny other N|H-eies. 

 I'siinlly they are in close eontnet with 

 vi-ssels nnil pithrnys, altlioiigh in the 

 onter portion of the annual rinjjs tliey 

 freipiently form more or less distinct 

 tauKential bands. The walls are very 

 thin and contain numerous pits ( Kig. .'t, 

 K. p.) where they arc in contact with 

 pilhray cells and vessels. The pits are 

 particularly abundant in the cross walls 

 of individual cells composing the fiber. 

 Crystals of calcium oxalate and calcium 

 carbonate are very abundant in wood- 

 parenchyma fibers (Fig. 4, r.) of black 

 walnut, often forming long vertical rows, 

 but arc almost entirely wanting in the 

 filx-rs of ether native species. 



I'ith-rays (Plate II, p. r.) arc regu- 

 larly distributed throughout the wood. 

 They are from one to six cells wide, 

 chiefly two to five cells wide and from 

 a few to about twenty-five cells higii, 

 .•spindle-shaped and elongated-elliptical 

 in outline (Fig. 5). The cells near the 

 middle of the rays (Fig. 7, r. c.) are 

 from two to four times as long as 

 wide, while those in the upper and lower 

 row are frecpiently squarish or elongated 

 in the <lirection of the stem. The ter- 

 minal (end) walls (radial section) of 

 the pith-ray cells are usually vertical 

 Pith-ray cells contain nuniercus !.ii)all, 

 s. p.), especially on the radial walls. No 



ri 



KIG. 6. 



crystals of calcium o.xalatc and calcium carbonate occur in these 

 elements. 



Butternut 



The butternut {Juglans cine- 

 rca Linnaeus) (Plate I.) grows 

 from southern New Brunswick 

 to Delaware and on the Ap- 

 palachian mountains to Georgia 

 :iiid Alabama (headwater of 

 Klack Warrior river, V.'inston 

 • lunty) ; westward through On- 

 tario to Dakota, southeastern 

 Nebraska, southern Missouri, 

 :ind northeastern Arkansas. 



Butternut is used for the 

 same purposes as black walnut, 

 but it is conceded to be much 

 less valuable for interior finish 

 and furniture than black walnut. 

 However, cabinet makers value 

 butternut especially for its soft '^'*^ 



browii tones which are i)lca8ing when the wood is finished in its 

 natural color. The somewhat close general resemblance of butter- 

 nut wood to Circassian walnut has already suggested its use with success 

 for the legs, stUes and rails of furniture made up largely of the more 

 expensive Circassian walnut. Other uses of butternut are for posts, 

 rails, bowls, carriage panels, co£Sns, shoes, and small articles of 

 furniture and ornamental work. 



At present there is probably an output of nearly 25,000,000 feet 

 of butternut in this country annually, and a good deal of this will 

 be used eventually as a substitute for Circassian walnut, the popularity 

 of which, as a furniture and interior finishing wood, is rapidly 

 increasing. The smaller size of butternut trees and their less abundant 



771 ?• C. 



distributlcMi lender the available supply I < CI B 



niui'h more limited than in the case of ' ' 



black walnut. ' 



(lltCSK ClIARACTKItS 



When first cut, the thin sapwood of 

 this s|>ecies is almost pnre white, but 

 with exposure to the light, it becomes 

 a beautiful yellowish shade or very light 

 brown. The lieartwood is light, soft 

 gray-brown, which darkens with expo- 

 sure to light, sometimes having a red- 

 <lish tinge. It is much lighter colored I II ' III I 



than black walnut, but it has a good 

 many of the physical properties of the Uf 



latter. Butternut wood is morlerately 

 light in weight, specific gravity when 

 air-dried being .41, and the weight per 

 cubic foot approximately twenty-five 

 jiounds. It is soft, rather brittle, coarse- 



graineil, easily worked, taking a high ' HU lllj 



polish and showing satin-like luster. 

 If not carefully seasoned, butternut 

 wood checks and warps. It is moder- 

 ately durable in contact with the soil, 

 and is seldom attacked by borers. 



The di.nmeter of the tree varies from 

 one to two feet, and occasionally reaches 

 three feet, with a total height generally 

 from sixty to eighty feet; while in the 

 Ohio river valley country, where butter- 

 nut reaches its greatest development, 

 trees frequently attain a height of one 

 hundred feet with a clear length of 

 forty feet. 



Minute Characters 

 Vessels (Plato I, f.) vary in diameter from .053 to .173 millimeter, 

 with an average of .116 millimeter. (Table I.). They are regularly 

 distributed throughout the annual rings, and arc usually most abundant 

 in the earlywood. giadually 

 diminishing in number and size 

 toward the outer boundary of 

 the annual layer. These vessels 

 may be seen with a pocket lens 

 magnifying four to six diameters. 

 Each annual ring (Plate I, a. r.) 

 begins, therefore, with a more or 

 less interrupted row, or rows of 

 slightly larger pores than those 

 within the latewood. Numerous 

 smaller pores are distributed 

 either singly throughout the an- 

 nual ring or occasionally in short 

 radial rows of from two to four 

 each, and where the vessels occur 

 in uninterrupted rows, these 

 smaller pores are usually very 

 Miudi flattened radially. The 

 '• vessel segments are from one to 



four times as long as wide (Fig. 1, v. s.). The walls are usually 

 quite thin and contain numerous small round bordered pits (Fig. 1, 

 b. p.) arranged in horizontal rows. The partition walls (Fig. 1, p. w.) 

 of the vessel segments are mostly oblique, although in the smaller 

 vessels three partition walls are usuaJly horizontal. The vessel seg- 

 ments are completely open (simple perforations) at both ends, form- 

 ing an open passageway. Black waln.it can be readily distinguished 

 from butternut by its slightly less numerous and small pores. 



Wood fibers (Plate III, tr. /.) vary in length from .C:;:: t^) 1.60.36 

 millimeters, with an average of 1.113 millimeters (Table II.). With 

 the exception of black walnut, they are longer in butternut than in 

 any other native species. Wood fibers are arranged in more or less 



