2/2 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



lobed. Lateral buds, directed outwards at an angle of 45', small, ovoid, pubescent ; 

 frequently two superposed. Pith dark brown, with narrow chambers. (A. H.) 



Distribution 



According to Sargent, it occurs in rich moist soil near the banks of streams and 

 on low rocky hills from southern New Brunswick and the valley of the Saint 

 Lawrence in Ontario to eastern Dakota, south-eastern Nebraska, central Kansas, 

 and northern Arkansas, and on the Appalachian Mountains to northern Georgia 

 and northern Alabama ; most abundant and of its largest size northward. The 

 grey walnut or butternut, as it is commonly called, is a common tree over the 

 same region as that which produces the black walnut, but never attains the same 

 size, and, as a rule, unless drawn up in the forest is a much more spreading and less 

 valuable tree. It does not in New England usually exceed 30 to 50 feet in height, 

 with a trunk i to 4 feet in diameter, but sometimes in the rich forests of the Wabash 

 valley attains greater dimensions. Ridgway says, loc. cit. 76, that two trees felled 

 in the " Timber Settlement," Wabash county, measured 97 feet and 1 1 7 feet in 

 length, with clear trunks 50 feet and 32 feet long, and i foot 10 inches in diameter. 

 Pinchot and Ashe, loc. cit. 82, say that in North Carolina it is nowhere common, but 

 in cool rich mountain valleys it attains 70 feet high with a diameter of 3 feet. 

 In New England Emerson, loc. cit. 210, mentions a tree in Richmond, Mass., 

 which was 13 feet 3 inches in girth at the smallest place below the branches. 

 I never saw any such trees as these ; and near Ottawa, where the tree is 

 approaching its northern limit of distribution, it was a small branchy tree bearing 

 little fruit. 



Introduction 



The butternut was first described by Parkinson,^ and was apparently introduced 

 into England at the same time as the black walnut, i.e. sometime before 1656, as it 

 is probably one of the species mentioned by Tradescant ^ as growing in his garden. 

 Loudon states that it was introduced into cultivation by the Duchess of Bedford in 

 1699 ; but the tree referred to by him was Carya alba.^ 



Cultivation 



Though it must have been planted in many places in this country the butternut 

 seems to be now a very scarce tree. The only one I have seen of any size grows in 

 the grounds of Mr. C. S. Dickens at Coolhurst, near Horsham, and was in 1902 

 52 feet high and 4 feet 2 inches in girth. This produced fruit in 1900 from which I 

 raised two seedlings, one of which is now growing at Colesborne. I noticed that 

 the roots of these seedlings instead of being long, fusiform, and free from rootlets, 

 as in J. regia and J. nigra, formed a thick, fibrous mass, which made the tree 



' Theatrum Botanicum, I414 (1640). ^ Museum Tradescant ianum, 146, 147 (1656). 



' Alton, Hort. Kew, iii. 360 (1789), ex Brit. Museum Sloant MSS. 525 and 3349. 



