262 Fruits and Fruit- Trees. 



of nuts," specialized elsewhere (Song, vi. 2), seems clearly 

 to have been one of walnuts, 'eghoz, the Hebrew word, 

 anticipating the subsequent use by the Greeks and 

 Romans, of mpvov and nux } which terms, when employed 

 without an adjective, always meant the walnut, the nut 

 par excellence. The walnut has the further recommenda- 

 tion of never giving a shade so dense as to do harm to 

 the grass below ; and of never being so thick in foliage 

 as to hinder the descent of the rain, so that there is no 

 tree under which grass will grow more freely. The tap- 

 root is usually strong, and gives the tree a powerful hold 

 upon the soil, so that it is less liable to be torn up by 

 tempests than any other. The preacher who takes for 

 his text Prov. xii. 3, " The root of the righteous shall not 

 be moved," could not do better than adduce the walnut 

 as nature's own illustration of perennial steadfastness. 

 Prudent and wary as to frost, it is one of the last trees to 

 come in leaf; sensitive when the cold returns, it is soon 

 dismantled again. So weighty is the produce that the 

 yield of fruit in good seasons is enough to pay the rent 

 of the land in which the tree is anchored ; and with trees 

 of four-score it would be possible to purchase the free- 

 hold. Unlike almost all other fruit-trees, the walnut has 

 the final merit of furnishing valuable timber. 



The native countries of the walnut begin with Persia 

 and Armenia, and extend thence to the Himalayas. It 

 abounds especially in Cashmere ; in Asia Minor and in 

 Greece it looks like a native. When carried westwards 

 is not known. A tree in every way so worthy could not 



