46 HOUGH'S AMERICAN WOODS. 



ire bifid at apex. Pistillate flowers ovate-globose, \ in. long, puberulous. calyx 

 lobes broad-ovate, pubescent and subtended by a ring-like border of short bracts ; 

 stigmas club-shaped, in. long, yellow. Fruit globose, f to 1 in. long, with 

 thin dark brown pubescent husk, which being removed reveals a subglobose dark- 

 brown nut, slightly compressed, without sutural ridges but with remote shallow 

 grooves. It is four-celled at base, rather thin walled and contains a large sweet 

 kernel. 



Generally a small tree with few stout branches forming a rounded 

 or broad head, and sometimes hardly more than a shrub, but occasion- 

 ally it attains the height of 50 or 60 ft. (16 m.), with trunk 18 in. 

 (0.50 in.) or more in diameter. The bark of trunk of a gray -brown 

 color is rather fibrous within, fissured into flat longitudinal ridges 

 which exfoliate in thick plate- like scales. 



HABITAT. The California "Walnut is found along the Coast region 

 of California from a little north of San Francisco southward to the 

 southern slopes of San Bernardino Mountains, preferring the banks 

 of streams and rich bottom-lands. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. Wood rather heavy and hard, of moderate 

 strength, easy to work, with rather large, quite uniformly distributed 

 open ducts, and small obscure medullary rays. It is of a dark 

 purple-brown color, sometimes handsomely mottled, and with thick 

 yellowish white ' sap-wood, which, however, soon after being cut 

 assumes a markedly green cast, changing afterwards to brownish 

 white color. Specific Gravity, 0.4086; Weight of a Cubic Foot /// 

 Pounds, 25.46. 



USES. The wood is not extensively used, though sound trunks, 

 when large enough, are suitable for such uses as the allied Black 

 Walnut is applied, as in cabinet making, etc. It is often planted as 

 a shade tree. The fruit, though small, is considered, by children at 

 least, as well worth gathering on account of the good edible qualities. 

 They are sometimes planted as young stocks on which to graft the 

 English Walnut. 



ORDER CUPULIFERJE : OAK FAMILY, 



Leaves 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. Fertile flowers solitary, clustered or spiked, and furnished with an invo- 

 lucre which forms a cup or covering to the nut ; calyx-tube adherent to the ovary, 

 its teeth minute and crowning the summit ; o vary *2-7-cel led with 1-2 pendulous 

 ovules in each cell, but all of the cells and ovales, except one, disappearing before 

 maturity; stigmas sessile. Fruit a 1-celled, 1-seeded nut, solitary or several 

 together and partly or wholly covered by the scaly (in some cases echinate) invo- 

 lucral cup or covering ; seed albumenless, with an anatrapous. often edible, 

 embryo ; cotyledons thick and fleshy. 



Genus is represented by both trees and shrubs. 



