WALNUT. BALM OF GILEAD. POPLAR. 105 



pickled, and, when ripe, the kernels are eaten. It 

 is from these nuts that what is called Nut-oil is 

 obtained: but the hazel-nut also affords a kind of 

 oil which is used by painters. The wood of the 

 Walnut-tree takes a fine polish, and was formerly 

 much used in furniture : its principal use at pre- 

 sent is, for making gun-stocks, for which purpose 

 the king has plantations of the tree in different 

 parts of England. 



The Amy'ris Gil'eadensis, Balm of Gilead, is a 

 shrub of this class and order, which grows in Judea 

 and Arabia, and produces the resin or gum cele- 

 brated in Scripture for its medical virtues. It is 

 so highly valued by the Turks that its exportation 

 is prohibited. 



I had almost forgotten to tell you, that the 

 Poplar, of which there are three or four native 

 species, belongs, according to Withering, to the 

 order Monogynia, of the eighth class.* The bark 

 of the trembling Poplar, or Aspen-tree, Pop'ulus 

 trem'ula, is the principal food of beavers: and 

 Linnaeus mentions that in West Bothnia, a part 

 of Sweden, it serves as fodder for cows, goats, and 

 sheep, being cut into very small pieces in autumn, 

 and laid up to dry till the following spring, wfyen 

 hay is very scarce in that country. The wood- 

 pecker is very fond of the Aspen-tree, for the bark 



* Class and order Dioecia Octandria, of Linnaeus. 



