CHAP. (If. 



JUGLANDA^'E/h;. ./irGI.ANS. 



14- '25 



tree. The fruit is green and oval ; 

 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 1§ in. long, and 

 from lA in. to H in. in diameter. 

 The nut occupies two tlrirds of the 

 volume of the fruit. Towards autumn 

 the husk softens, and, decaying from 

 about the nut, allows it to tall out. 

 The shell is slightly channeled, and, 

 in most of the cultivated varieties, 

 so thin as to be easil\' crushed by the 

 fingers. The kernel is of an agree- 

 able taste ; and is covered with a fine 

 pellicle, and separated by a thin 

 partition, which may be readily de- 

 tached both from the shell and 

 from the kernel. The plant is some- 

 what tender when young, and apt 

 to be injured by spring frosts : 

 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 Britannicuvi (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 J784, visited 

 the province of Ghilan, was the first in modern times to ascertain, with cer- 

 tainty, that the walnut belonged to the same country as the peach and the 

 apricot. It was known to the Greeks, whose names for it were Persicon and 

 BasiHcon, the Persian and royal nut. According to Pliny's account, the 



5 A 2 



