CHAP, ix SYLVA 



CHAPTER IX. 



Of the Wallnut. 



i . Jug/ans, quasi Jovis glans, the * wall or welch- 

 nut (though no where growing of it self, some say, in 

 Europe) is of several sorts ; Monsieur Rencaume (of 

 the French Academy) reckons nine ; the soft-shell 

 and the hard, the whiter and the blacker grain : This 

 black bears the worst nut, but the timber much to be 

 preferred, and we might propagate more of them if 

 we were careful to procure them out of Virginia, 

 where they abound and bear a squarer nut, of all other 

 the most beautiful, and best worth planting ; indeed 

 had we store of these, we should soon despise the rest ; 

 yet those of Grenoble come in the next place, and are 

 much priz'd by our cabinet-makers : In all events, be 

 sure to plant from young and thriving trees, bearing 

 full and plump kernels. It is said that the walnut- 

 kernel wrap'd in its own leaf, being carefully taken 

 out of its shell, brings a nut without shell, but this is 

 a trifle ; the best way to elevate them, is to set them 

 as you do the chesnut, being planted of the nut, or 

 set at the distance you would have him stand ; for 

 which they may be prepar'd by beating them off the 

 tree (as was prescribed of the chesnut) some days 

 before they quit the branches of themselves, and kept 

 in their husks, or without them, till Spring, or by 

 bedding them (being dry) in sand, or good earth, till 

 March or earlier, from the time they fell, or were 



1 See Servius introduced discoursing of this and other nuts, Macrob. Saturn. 

 \. 3. c. 18. 



