Bisset: The James River Walnut 



101 



section of the nut it appears as if the 

 many fine lines, or divisions, of cineria 

 had become solidified in the nut of the 

 hybrid, thus causing the thick, hard 

 shell of the seedling. 



There is a young walnut tree growing 

 a short distance from the old one (not 

 over 150 yards away), which is said to 

 have been raised from a seed borne by 

 the old tree and planted about 1860. 

 This is about the same height as the 

 parent tree, and has a trunk about two 

 and one-half feet in diameter. Its 

 habit of growth, leaves, trunk, and bark 

 are similar in every respect to that of 

 the parent tree, with the single excep- 

 tion that the young twigs are heavily 

 covered with pubescent hairs, which it 

 would seem to have inherited from the 

 butternut parent (Juglans cineria.) 



Neither of the trees are prolific bear- 

 ers, and what nuts they do bear seem 

 to be of extremely low vitality, as so 

 far we have not been able to learn of 

 any other seedling trees being grown 

 from them. The low vitality of the 

 seeds indicates a weakness that is not 

 at all uncommon in hybrids. 



Professor Asa Gray was at one time 

 shown young fruits from the old walnut 

 tree, which he at once identified as 

 Juglans cineria; the shape of the nuts 

 being elongated and sharp-pointed, as 

 in that species; but much wider or 

 thicker. It is but just, however, to 

 say that no leaves accompanied the 

 specimen sent Professor Gray, to help 

 him in his identification. 



There is one character in the leaves of 

 the old tree that resembles nigra, name- 

 ly, that the leaflets have the sickle-like 

 form of that species. Notwithstand- 

 ing this leaflet resemblance however, and 

 taking into consideration all of the 

 characteristics of the old tree, and 

 specially those of the young one (which, 

 I think, we may be permitted to call 

 the second generation) the shoots or 

 young twigs of which have reverted to, 



or developed, the pubescent hairs of 

 cineria, I believe this walnut to bp a 

 cross between regia and cineria, ' as 

 before stated. 



Now as to the value of this tree and 

 similar hybrids, many have feared that, 

 owing to their rapidity of growth, there 

 would be danger of the scion overlap- 

 ping the stock, and a poor growth be ob- 

 tained as a result. Experiments being 

 carried on at the present time in Cali- 

 fornia, in grafting hybrid walnuts on 

 the native California Black, have shown 

 that the scion of the hybrid stimulates 

 the stock itself to a more rapid growth 

 and, therefore, we may find that the 

 rapidity of growth of the hybrids will 

 present no difficulties to the successful 

 propagation and utilization of these 

 hybrids for lumber production. 



The soil upon which these two trees 

 are growing is an alluvial, rich, sandy 

 loam, of great depth, a soil well suited 

 to the best development of the walnut 

 tree. 



In spite of this evidence, some of 

 my friends are inclined to doubt the 

 hybrid origin of this tree and to think 

 it probably an aberrant form of the 

 English walnut, as it is a well known 

 fact that this species presents many 

 variations or forms which yield nuts 

 with all kinds of shells varying from 

 that of the paper-shell variety, that can 

 be easily crushed between the fingers, 

 to the hard, thick-shelled varieties that 

 are used so extensively in Germany and 

 Switzerland in making small toys — ^the 

 toys being carved out of these nuts. If 

 the nuts borne by this tree were of 

 greater vitality we would soon be able 

 to determine without a doubt the par- 

 entage of the tree, for the young seed- 

 lings would show in their leaf characters 

 the usual variation of seedlings from 

 hybrids, but owing to this low vitality 

 of the seed, it will, I am afraid, be some 

 time before we can definitely decide 

 upon the parentage of the tree. 



