280 GARDENING. 



posed to be a native of Persia, and of the southern 

 side of Mount Caucasus, and yields a nut which 

 holds a considerable place among the dessert fruits, 

 and which has been recommended, as far back as 

 the time of Pliny, as a safe and powerful vermi- 

 fuge.* Its varieties are the Oval, the Large French,! 

 the Tender, and the Thick-shelled. 



To obtain these, Millar and Forsyth recommend 

 sowing the nuts in a nursery, keeping them clean, 

 and leaving their maturity to time, without any in- 

 terposition of art to hasten their productiveness. 

 But Knight and others have succeeded so well by 

 inarching and budding, that these methods may be 

 considered as having nearly superseded the older 

 and slower modes of propagation. In employing 

 the former (inarching), your young plants, growing 

 in pots, are raised to some branch of an old bearing 

 tree, and grafted by approach. A union takes place 

 in the summer ; and in the fall you detach the scion 

 from the parent stem. In the other case, the pro- 

 cess is equally sure and less troublesome. Many 

 minute buds, almost concealed in the bark, will be 

 found near the base of the annual shoots. These 

 must be taken in preference to those which are 

 fuller and more prominent, and inserted near the 

 summit of the last year's wood, and, of course, near 

 the base of the annual shoots. "Thus managed," 

 says Knight. " they will be found to succeed with 

 nearly as much certainty as those of other fruit- 

 trees, provided the buds be in a more mature state 

 than those of the stock into which they are set." 



The walnut-tree grows well in many different 

 soils, but does best in a deep, sandy loam, resting 

 on a dry subsoil. It is often employed as a screen 

 for other and more delicate fruit-trees, in which 

 case it is arranged on the northern and western side 



* The Spaniards grate the nut into their tarts, &c., probably 

 with a view to its supposed medicinal quality. 

 f Before 1562 it was called the Gaul or French nut. 



