254 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



colour, and other qualities of the fruit, is very great ; but a detailed description of 

 these does not come within the scope of our work. The most remarkable is the 

 huskless walnut * of North China, which is cultivated in the mountains to the north- 

 west of Peking. In this curious form the husk is almost wanting, being very thin 

 and irregular. In var. racemosa the fruits are numerous, fifteen to twenty-four, 

 and are set close together on the peduncle. In var. maxima, Loudon (var. macro- 

 carpa), the fruits are very large. The nuts are elongated and very narrow in 

 var. elongata (var. Bartheriana ^) ; very sharp-pointed at both ends in van rostrata ; 

 and have very thin shells in var. tenera,^ Loudon (var. fragilis). The kernel of the 

 nut is bright red in var. rubra (var. rubrocarpa).* 



Hybrids 



I. Juglans regia x nigra. Two forms of this are well known in cultivation ; 

 they differ mainly in the character of the fruit. 



1. Juglans Vilmoriniana, Carri^re, Rev. Hort. 1863, p. 30. Young shoots 

 glabrous. Leaf-scars obcordate, three-lobed, deeply notched above. Leaflets eleven 

 to thirteen, ovate-lanceolate, sub-sessile, apex acuminate, base rounded or tapering ; 

 serrations fine and shallow, directed forwards ; lower surface green and glabrous, 

 except for conspicuous tufts of pubescence in the axils of the main veins. Rachis 

 glabrous in the upper leaves of the shoot, pubescent towards its base in the lower 

 leaves. Fruit with the thick husk ofy. nigra. Nut smooth, globose, thicker shelled 

 and more deeply furrowed than that of the common walnut. 



In Garden and Forest, iv. 51 (1891), M. M. de Vilmorin gives particulars of the 

 original tree in his garden at Verrieres les Buisson, near Paris, and an excellent 

 illustration of it in winter. He says that it was planted about 86 years previously 

 as a young seedling by his grandfather as a memorial of the birth of his eldest son. 

 Nothing certain is known of its origin, though it was supposed by Dr. Engelmann 

 to be a hybrid, between the European and the black walnut. The characters of the 

 bark, branchlets, and buds are intermediate ; the leaves resemble those of J. regia 

 more than those ofy. nigra. The fruit, which is not produced every ye^r, and never 

 in quantity, is figured, and resembles most that of the black walnut. Of the few 

 seedlings which have been raised from it one is growing beautifully in the Arboretum 

 at Segrez, and produces fertile nuts. All the seedlings have grown well when planted 

 in deep sandy soil mixed with clay. The tree at Verrieres was seen by Elwes in 

 1905, and measured 95 feet high by 10 feet in girth, with a bole about 16 feet long. 

 The habit of the tree was considered by him to resemble the black walnut rather than 

 the common species. 



There are young trees of J. Vilmoriniana growing at Kew, and one has been 

 recently sent to Colesborue by M. de Vilmorin. 



2. Juglans pyriformis, Carri^re, loc. cit. 28, figs. 4 to 9. Garden, L. 478, fig. (1896). 



' See Hance, mjourn. Bot. 1876, p. 50. 

 ' Figured in Garden, L. 478 (1896) ; and Rev. Hort. 1859, p. 147, and 1861, p. 427. 

 ' The thin-shelled walnut is mentioned in Parkinson, Theatrum Botanicum, 141 3 (1640). 

 * See Gard. Chron. xxiii. 346 (1898). This variety is figured in IVien. Illust. Gart. Zeitung, 1898, p. 165. 



