DECIDUOUS TREES. 351 



THE EUROPEAN WALNUT OR MADEIRA NUT, Juglans regia, is 

 a tree somewhat resembling our butternut in its general appear- 

 ance, but it is loftier and larger, and has fewer leaflets to the leaf 

 generally three or four pairs and an odd one. It comes into leaf 

 rather late, and drops its leaves early. Though greatly valued in 

 England and the Continent for its beauty as well as for its nuts, its 

 want of hardiness in the Northern States, and lack of any peculiar 

 beauty at the South, has prevented its culture to any great extent 

 in this country. South of Philadelphia it may be grown with 

 safety. Like the black walnut, its shade is injurious to vegetation. 



THE BLACK WALNUT, yuglans nigra. A tree of great size, 

 held in high estimation of late years for the dark color and the 

 value of its wood for cabinet purposes. In western forests its aver- 

 age height at maturity is about seventy feet, but specimens are not 

 unfrequent one hundred feet high, with trunks from four to five feet 

 in diameter. Its bark is very dark and deeply furrowed. In open 

 ground it becomes not only a tree of majestic size but of marked 

 beauty, from the light color and softly blended masses of its long 

 pinnate leaves, each leaf having from thirteen to seventeen leaflets. 

 The tree spreads grandly with age, and for park purposes would be 

 worthy of an extended description ; but as there is something in 

 the emanations from its leaves and roots injurious to trees near it, 

 and to grass under it, this fault, and its great size, unfit it for use 

 in suburban grounds, and make further description needless. 



THE BUTTERNUT, yuglans cinerea. This is a much lower 

 species than the preceding, with lighter colored wood, grayish bark, 

 and an oblate form like that of the apple tree. With or without its 

 leaves, the tree has a cleanly domestic expression. In the color 

 'and form of its leaves it resembles the ailantus more than any 

 other native tree, but its outline is more formal, and the foliage is 

 thrown out with less picturesqueness than that of the ailantus. 

 Full-grown trees in open ground rarely exceed fifty feet in height 

 and sixty feet diameter of head. Its odor is less powerful and its 

 presence less injurious to vegetation than that of the black walnut. 



