CHAP. CII. 



J^UGLANDA^CE^. JU^GLAnS. 



1439 



y 3. J. CINE^REA Li. 



The grey'branched Walnut Tree, or Butter-nut, 



; Willd. Sp. PI., 4. p. 456. ; Pursh Fl. Amer. Sept., 2. p. ^Q. ; Lodd. 



Identification. Lin. Sp. PI., l-il5. 



Cat., ed 1836. 

 Synonymes. J. catliartica North Amer. Sylva, 1. p. 160—165. t. 31., Michx. Arb., 1. p 165. ; J. oblonga 



Mill. Diet., No. 3.,\Retz. Obs., 1. p. 10. ; Oil-nut, White Walnut, Amer. ; Noyer cendr^, Fr. ; graue 



Walnuss, Ger. 

 Engravings. Michx. Arb., 1. t. 2. ; Michx. North Amer. Sylva, t. 31. ; Jacq. Ic. Kar., 1. t. 192. ; 



Wangh. Amer., t. 9. f. 21. ; and our fig. 1262. 



Sj^ec. Char., SfC. Petiole villous. Leaflets, in a leaf, 15 — 17; lanceolate, 

 rounded at the base, serrate with shallow teeth ; tomentose beneath ; lateral 

 ones sessile. Fruit oblong-ovate, with a tapered tip, downy, covered with 

 viscid matter in small transparent " vesicles " [? glanded hairs], pendulous 

 on a flexible peduncle. Nut oval, with an acuminate tip, ver} rough with 

 prominent irregular ridges. {Michx. N. Amer. Syl., and Pursh.) A native of 

 North America, near the sea coast, from Canada to Virginia, and on the 

 Alleghany Mountains; where it flowers in April and May, and ripens its fruit 

 in October. Introduced in 1656. 



Description, Sfc. The grey walnut, according to Michaux, is a tall tree, like 

 Juglans nigra; of which, notwithstanding the very different form of the fruit, 

 we cannot help thinking it is only a variety ; because it is not very readily 

 distinguished from that 

 species by the wood or 

 the leaves. We speak, 

 however, only from 

 what we have seen in 

 young trees in the 

 neighbourhood of Lon- 

 don : and this seems to 

 be the case with young 

 trees in America; for 

 Michaux observes that 

 the two species, when 

 young, resemble each 

 other in their foliage, 

 and in the rapidity of 

 their growth ; but that 

 they are distinguishable 

 at first sight, when ar- 

 rived at maturity. The 

 buds of the Juglans cinerca, like those of J", nigra, are not covered by scales ; and 

 the leaves unfold a fortnight earlier than those of the genus Ciirya, or hickories. 

 The leaves are composed of seven or eight pairs of sessile leaflets, with an 

 odd one. The leaflets are from 2 in. to 3 in in. length, serrated, and slightly 

 downy. The male catkins are large, and cjlindrical, iin. or 5 in. long, and 

 attached to the shoots of the preceding year; differing, in this respect, from 

 the male catkins of the Juglans nigra, which appear at the extremity of the 

 branches of the current year. The fertile flowers come out on the extremity 

 of the current year's shoots, and their stigmata are rose-coloured. The fruit 

 is commonly single, and suspended by a thin pliable peduncle, about Sin. in 

 length : its form is oblong-oval, without any appearance of seam. It is often 

 2i in. in length, and 5 in. in circumference; and is covered with a viscid 

 adhesive substance, composed of small transparent vesicles, which are not 

 readily discovered without the aid of a glass. The nuts are hard, oblong, 

 rounded at the base, and terminated at the summit in an acute point ; the 

 surface is very rough, and deeply and irregularly furrowed. In America, in 

 the neighbourhood of New York, the nuts are ripe about the middle of Sep- 

 tember, a fortnight earlier than those of the other species of walnut. The 

 kernel is thick and oily, and soon becomes rancid ; hence, doubtless, the 

 names of butter-nut and oil-nut. In America, the tree produces the fruit in 

 such abundance, that in some seasons a person may gather several bushels of 



