14. JUGLANS CINEREA BUTTERNUT. 61 



branching low down and sending out long horizontal branches. It is 

 occasionally 80 ft. (24 m.) in height, but usually considerably less, and 

 with a trunk. 3 to 4 ft. (0.90 to 1.20 m.) in diameter. Its short and 

 wide-spread habit is very characteristic when growing in the open fields. 



HABITAT. Southern Canada and north-eastern United States, west- 

 ward to Minnesota and Iowa, and southward to Maryland or farther 

 among the Alleganies. Grows in rich calcareous and not very moist soil. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. Wood not strong, soft, compact, easily 

 worked, taking a satiny and beautiful polish. Color light grayish-brown 

 with white sap-wood, which is very thin in comparison with the colored 

 heart. Specific Gravity, 0.4036; Percentage of Ash, 0.51; Relative 

 Approximate Fuel Value, 0.4065; Coefficient of Elasticity, 81253; Modu- 

 lus of Rupture, 597; Resistance to Longitudinal Pressure, 392; Resistance 

 to Indentation, 90; Weight of a Cubic Foot in Pounds, 25.46. 



USES. This timber though not of as high price in market as the 

 allied Black Walnut, is nevertheless of great value for interior finishing, 

 as wainscotings etc. It is to some extent used in furniture, and occa- 

 sionally for other purposes. 



Of quite as much value as the timber of this tree is its fruit, the nuts, 

 which are gathered at about the time of the first frosts, and when 

 properly dried are sweet and delicious. An expressed oil from these 

 nuts is a drying oil very similar in properties to the linseed oil. The 

 nuts gathered when young and succulent, at about the beginning of 

 June, make excellent pickles, after removing the clammy pubescence by 

 scalding and then rubbing with a coarse cloth. 



The bark and the nut shucks are sometimes used for dyeing purposes, 

 and from them, according to Mr. Emerson, black, brown, purple and 

 fawn-color have been produced. The sap of this tree is quite rich in 

 sugar, but not equal in value to that of the Sugar Maple. 



MEDICINAL PROPERTIES. The inner bark, particularly of the root, is 

 officinally recognized as of value in medicine as a safe cathartic, very 

 mild in its action. It is said that it was extensively employed by the 

 physicians connected with the army in the Revolutionary war. Dysen- 

 tery is a complaint in which it is particularly indicated. It is given in 

 the form of a decoction or extract, the latter being officinal and usually 

 preferred. The leaves, which are acrid, have been used when powdered 

 as a rubefacient and sometimes as a substitute for Spanish flies.* 



ORDER CUPULIFI3R.7E : OAK FAMILY. 



Learns alternate, simple, straight-veined; the stipules, forming the bud-scales, 

 deciduous. Flowers monoecious, apetalous. Sterile flowers in clustered or racemed 

 catkins (or in simple clusters in the Beech); calyx regular or scale-like; stamens 5-20. 



* U. S. Dispensatory, 15th ed., pp. 825-6. 



