The Trees of Vermont 79 



JUGLANDACEAE 



Butternut 

 Juglans cinerea L. 



Habit. — A medium-sized tree 30-50 feet high, with a short trunk 

 2-3 feet in diameter; forming a wide-spreading crown of large, hori- 

 zontal branches and stout, stiff branchlets. 



Leaves. — Alternate, compound, 15-30 inches long. Leaflets 11- 

 17. 2-4 inches long and one-half as broad; sessile, except the terminal; 

 oblong-lanceolate ; finely serrate ; thin ; yellow-green and rugose above, 

 pale and soft-pubescent beneath. Petioles stout, hairy. 



Flowers. — May, with the leaves ; monoecious ; the staminate in 

 cylindrical, greenish, drooping catkins 3-5 inches long; calyx 6-lobed, 

 borne on a hairy bract; corolla 0; stamens 8-12, with brown anthers; 

 the pistillate solitary or several on a common peduncle, about y^ inch 

 long, their bracts and bractlets sticky-hairy ; calyx 4-lobed, hairy ; 

 corolla 0; styles 2; stigmas 2, fringed, spreading, bright red. 



Fruit. — October ; about 2^ inches long, cylindrical, pointed, 

 greenish, sticky-downy, solitary or borne in drooping clusters of 3-5 ; 

 nuts with rough shells, inclosing a sweet, but oily kernel ; edible. 



Winter-buds. — Terminal bud I^-Ya. inch long, oblong-conical, 

 obliquely blunt, somewhat flattened, brownish, pubescent. 



Bark. — Twigs orange-brown or bright green, rusty-pubescent, be- 

 coming smooth and light gray ; gray and smoothish on young trunks, 

 becoming brown on old trunks, narrow-ridged, with wide furrows. 

 Plate IL 



Wood. — Light, soft, weak, coarse-grained, light brown, with thin, 

 lighter colored sapwood. 



Distribution. — Of frequent occurrence throughout Vermont. 



Habitat. — Prefers low, rich woods ; river-banks ; low hillsides ; 

 rocky hillsides. 



Notes. — The leaves of the butternut appear late and fall early. 

 The young trees are very attractive but the larger trees usually are 

 scraggy and unsound. Some preliminary work done in Dorset, Ben- 

 nington County, seems to indicate that perhaps through some peculiar 

 root antagonism the butternut will kill the shrubby cinquefoil (Potentilla 

 fructicosa), a shrub which is destroying some of the best pastures in 

 Northwestern Connecticut, Berkshire County, Massachusetts and Ben- 

 nington and Rutland Counties, Vermont. 



