328 EUROPEAN TREES. 



sucli immense use in fixing drifting sands in France, may perhaps 

 be better adapted to this purpose than any of the pines of the 

 "New World, and it is of great importance for its turpentine, resin 

 and tar. The epicea, or common fir, AMespicea, Ahies exeelsa, 

 Picea exoelsa, abundant in the mountains of France and the con- 

 tiguous country, is known for its product, Burgundy pitch, and, 

 as it flourishes in a greater variety of soil and chmate than almost 

 any other spike-leaved tree, it might be well worth transplanta- 

 tion.* The cork oak has been introduced into California and 



tunately, its maturity must be long waited for, and more nut-trees are felled 

 than planted. The demand for its wood in cabinet-work is the principal cause 

 of its destruction. See Lavekgne, Eeonomie Eurale de la France, p. 253. 



According to Cosimo Kidolfi {Lezioni Orali, ii. , p. 424), France obtains three 

 times as much oil from the walnut as from the olive, and nearly as much as 

 from all oleaginous seeds together. He states that the walnut bears nuts at 

 the age of twenty years, and yields its maximum product at seventy, and 

 that a hectare of ground, with thirty trees, or twelve to the acre, is equal to a 

 capital of twenty-five hundred francs. 



The nut of this tree is known in the United States as the " English walnut." 

 The fruit and the wood much resemble those of the American black- walnut, 

 Juglans nigra, but for cabinet-work the American is the more beautiful ma- 

 terial, especially when the large knots are employed. The timber of the Eu- 

 ropean species, when straight-grained, and clear, or free from knots, is, for 

 ordinary purposes, better than that of the American black-walnut, but bears 

 no comparison with the wood of the hickory, when strength combined with 

 elasticity is required, and its nut is very inferior in taste to that of the shag- 

 bark, as well as to the butternut, which it somewhat resembles. 



The butternut, Juglans cinerea, was introduced into Finland, in lat. 60 N., 

 BO long ago that the second generation of this hardy tree is now (1882) grow- 

 ing thriftily from nuts of those first planted. — Blomquist, Catalogue Special 

 d'Objets Forestiers, etc. 



" The chestnut is more valuable still, for it produces on a sterile soil, which, 

 without it, would yield onlj'^ ferns and heaths, an abundant nutriment fOT 

 man." — Lavergne, JEconomie Rurale de la France, p. 253. 



I beheve the varieties developed by cultivation are less numerous in the 

 walnut than in the chestnut, which latter tree is often grafted in Southern 

 Europe. 



The chestnut crop of France was estimated in 1848 at 3,478,000 hectolitres, 

 or 9,877,520 Winchester bushels, and valued at 13,528,000 francs, or more than 

 two million and a half dollars. In Tuscany the annual yield is computed at 

 about 3,550,000 bushels. 



The Tuscan peasants think the flour of the dried chestnut not less nutritious 

 than Indian cornmeal, and it sells at the same price, or about three cents per 

 English pound, in the mountains, and four cents in the towns. 



* This fir is remarkable for its tendency to cicatrize or heal over its stumps, 



