JUGLAXDE.E 511 



Chabraeus long ago remarked on the wonderful richness of 

 nature as displayed in the Walnut, ' prsesertim miranda figures 

 luxuria naturam in hoc fructu lusisse certum est.' The Walnut, 

 from its fancied resemblance to a head, the outer woody cover- 

 ing being compared to the skull, and the folds of the cotyledons 

 to the convolutions of the brain, was formerly supposed to be 

 especially efficacious in brain-disease. 



In the Walnut (Juglans regia) the ovary is one-celled or 

 imperfectly four-celled, one-ovuled ; the ovule is erect and 

 orthotropous, with the micropyle superior. The fruit is dru- 

 paceous, oblong-globose, crowned with a small point consisting 

 of a three- to five-toothed involucre formed by the union of the 

 bract and bracteoles, by the remains of the four-toothed peri- 

 anth and the remains of the style ; exocarp or rind smooth, 

 and beset with submerged glandular dots bursting irregularly 

 when mature, subfleshy ; endocarp hard, bony, or brittle, 

 corrugated, with a spongy lining or inner coat which forms 

 large irregular corrugations internally, and is apparently ex- 

 cavated into four large cavities at the base ; the excavations are 

 continued to the top of the main cavity of the ovary, hollowing 

 out the sides of the endocarp so as to furnish a larger amount 

 of space for the seed than is originally provided for it. In 

 Benthani and Hooker's ' Genera Plantarum ' the base of the 

 endocarp is said to be intruded, imperfectly dividing the fruit 

 into two or four cells. The endocarp further consists of two 

 valves or halves, which, however, cannot be separated without 

 force. 



The seed is large, strongly and irregularly corrugated, 

 seated on the central and originally basal placenta, which in 

 the mature fruit is about one-third above the base of the cavity 

 of the endocarp, deeply four-lobed at the base and filling the four 

 cavities ; the testa is thin, closely applied to the corrugations 

 of the endocarp externally before the seed becomes dried up, 

 and internally to the lobes of the embryo, pale brown. 



In the young state the endosperm fills the interior of the 

 seed with a clear jelly-like mass, in the apex of which is 

 the small embryo, with the radicle upwards. Gradually, 

 however, the cotyledons grow and eventually absorb the whole 

 of the endosperm, thus filling the whole of the interior of the 



