CHAP, Cll. _ JUGLANDA‘CEX. JU‘GLANS. 1425 
tree. The fruit is green and oval; bh 4 
and, in the wild species, contains a = 
small hard nut. In the most es- €> 
teemed cultivated varieties, the fruit 
is of a roundish oval and is strongly 
odoriferous; about 12 in. long, and 
from 14 in. to 14 in. in diameter. 
The nut occupies two thirds of the 
volume of the fruit. Towards autumn 
the husk softens, and, decaying from 
about the nut, allows it to fall out. 
The shell is slightly channeled, and, 
in most of the cultivated varieties, 
so thin as to be easily crushed by the I 
fingers. The kernel is of an agree- \ 
able taste; and is covered with a fine “SY atl 
pellicle, and separated by a_ thin W ent 
partition, which may be readily de- Nis 
tached both from the shell and f ~~ 
from the kernel. The plant is some- fj . 
what tender when young, and apt , 
to be injured by spring frosts : 1257 
nevertheless, it grows vigorously; and, in the climate of London, attains the 
height of 20 ft. in 10 years, beginning about that time to bear fruit. The 
tree attains a great age, as well as size; and, as it advances in both, increases 
in productiveness. There is, perhaps, no tree that sends down a more 
vigorous taproot than the walnut; and this it will do in the clefts of rocks; 
and, when it reaches good soil, produce a most ample head, and so thick a 
trunk and root, as in time to burst even rocks. Hence, there is no tree less 
liable to be torn up by the roots than the walnut; and, for this reason, and 
also because it makes its shoots rapidly, instead of continuing to elongate 
them all the summer, like some other trees (such as the larch, the oak, the 
poplar, &c.), it forms an erect well-balanced tree, even in exposed situations. 
The walnut is generally considered injurious, by its shade, both to man and 
plants. Pliny says that even the oak will not thrive near the walnut tree; which, 
if it be true, may be owing to the interference of their roots in the subsoil: but 
it is certain, that neither grass, nor field nor garden crops, thrive well under 
the walnut. The late Mr. Keen, an extensive market-gardener at Isle- 
worth, being the owner of the land he cultivated, planted, about the begin- 
ning of the present century, a number of rows of walnut trees, at consider- 
able distances from each other, across his grounds, in order at once to 
produce shelter to his herbaceous crops, and fruit for the market. He was 
celebrated for the growth of strawberries; and Mr. Phillips, the author of 
Pomarium Britannicum (published in 1820), says that Mr. Keen informed him 
that the walnut trees were so injurious to his strawberry beds, that the plants 
seldom bore fruit in their neighbourhood. The injury done to grass, and 
other plants on the surface of the ground, must be chiefly owing to the 
decaying of the fallen leaves, and the washing into the soil of their astringent 
properties ; consequently, the evil may be much alleviated by sweeping them 
up, and carrying them away as soon as they fall. 
Geography and History. The walnut is a native of Persia; and, according 
to Loureiro, of the north of China. Pallas found it frequently in the Penin- 
sula of Taurida, and on the south of Caucasus, growing spontaneously to a 
large size, so as to appear almost indigenous; the fruit ripening about the end 
of August. The elder Michaux, who, in the years 1782, 1783, and 1784, visited 
the province of Ghilan, was the first m modern times to ascertain, with cer- 
tainty, that the walnut belonged to the same country as the peach and the 
an It was known to the Greeks, whose names for, it were Persicon and 
ilicon, the Persian and royal nut. According to Pliny’s account, the 
5a 2 
