ASH. WALNUT 191 



smooth and greenish-grey for a long time. Tree loosely 

 branched and often showing a tendency to false whorls. 

 Spray stiff and decussate, the twigs very stout and few, 

 with black buds and pinnate greyish-green leaves. Flowers 

 deep purple, in dense clusters, followed by long pendent 

 winged achenes (" keys ") or by barren stalks remaining 

 late into the autumn. The opposite leaves, buds, and 

 branches at once distinguish this tree from the Walnut ; 

 as also the inflorescences, flowers and fruit : <?, $ and ^ 

 trees occur. Even in old trees the trunk can usually be 

 traced through, and the tree tends to form suckers. 



T- -r Trunk soon breaking into the limbs 

 and not traceable through the 

 crown : lower limbs coming off at 

 wide angles. Large tree with thick 

 alternate twigs, and main branches 

 tortuous like those of the Oak. 

 General colour of the bark pale, 

 tawny-grey with yellowish shallow 

 fissures on the trunk and limbs, 

 reminding one of the Ash, but the 

 buds not black and the spray 

 alternate. 



Juglans regia, L. Walnut (Fig. 92). The Walnut 

 has an ashen-grey periderm which may remain smooth 

 and pale until the tree reaches 50 60 feet in height; 

 and its richly branched and deeply foliaged crown has a 

 large spread. On the other hand, old trees occasionally 

 have a deeply fissured and darker greyish bark on the 

 trunk. 



The most certain test, in the absence of flowers and 

 fruit, is the chambered pith, a peculiarity shared by no 

 other common tree, and only met with in a few other 

 species of Juglans and Pterocarya, and a few out-of-the- 

 way forms. 



