1430 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 



One bushel of nuts will yield 15 lb. of peeled and clear kernels, and these half as many pounds of oil. 

 The small thick-shelled fruit, other circumstances being the same, always yields moreoil in proportion 

 to their bulk, than the large, or thin-shelled, fruit. A very interesting account of the mode of prepar- 

 ing the walnuts for being crushed for oil, and of the various uses to which the fruit is applied in Pied- 

 mont will be found in Bakewell's Travels in the Tarentaise. 



Alkaline Ashes. A full-sized walnut tree, Bosc, in 1822, states, will produce two sacks of nuts, 

 worth 12 francs ; and, if the leaves which fall, or are knocked down from the tree, are burned, they 

 will give a third part of their weight in pot-ashes, which are valued at 6 francs ; thus giving a total 

 increase per annum which, at tS per cent, represents a capital of 300 francs. The tree, the same 

 author states, is particularly valuable for a cultivator without much floating capital ; for he has known 

 repeatedly a product in fruit and ashes of 400 francs, procured at a total expense of not more than 

 36 francs ; and that this sum was expended almost entirely in manual labour, with scarcely anyjiid 

 from building or machinery. 



Medicinally, the use of the walnut is of the greatest antiquity. It is said to 

 have been one of the antidotes used by Mithridates. Pliny recommends it 

 " for driving worms out of the stomach ;" and adds that, " eaten after onions, 

 they keep them from rising." (Book xxiii. c. 18.) An extract of the unripe 

 fruit is used by rustic practitioners for the destruction of worms : the fruit 

 itself is stomachic; and the bark, either green, or dried and powdered, is a 

 powerful emetic. The root is said to be purgative and diuretic; and a de- 

 coction of the wood, sudorific. The sap of the leaves, mixed with milk, is 

 considered a remedy for horses having the fistula. Evelyn tells us that the 

 husks and leaves, being macerated in warm water, and that liquor poured on 

 grass walks and bowling-greens, infallibly kills the worms, without endangering 

 the grass. Not, says Dr. Hunter, that there is anything peculiarly noxious 

 in this decoction, but worms cannot bear the application of anything bitter to 

 their bodies ; which is the reason that bitters, such as gentian, are the best 

 destroyers of worms lodged in the bowels of animals. Worms are seldom 

 observed in the intestines of the human body, except in cases where the 

 bile is either weak or deficient. (Hunter's Evcl., p. 178. note.) Philips states 

 that anglers water the ground with a decoction of walnut leaves, to cause the 

 worms to come to the surface of the ground, when they pick them up for 

 bait. The leaves, dried and mixed with those of tobacco, are said to have 

 similar virtues to those of that plant. An extract of the unripe fruit, and 

 also a rob prepared from its juice, are laxative; and the vinegar in which 

 walnuts have been pickled is a very useful gargle. 



Poetical and legendary Allusions. The walnut tree was dedicated to Diana, 

 and the festivals of that goddess were held beneath its shade. The Greeks 

 and Romans, as before observed, strewed walnuts at their weddings. 

 Horace, Virgil, Catullus, and many of the other Latin poets, allude to this 

 custom, which probably had reference to the bride's deserting the ranks of 

 Diana (to whom, as we have seen above, the walnut was dedicated,) for those 

 of Hymen (see p. 1426.); and there is an allusion to it in Herrick's Epilha- 

 Uuninm on Sir Thomas Southwell and his lady : 



" Now bar the door the bridegroom puts 

 The eager boys to gather nuts." 



Spenser mentions walnuts as employed in Christmas games ; and many other 

 British poets mention it for different qualities. Cowley, however, has 

 enumerated so many of the properties, which the walnut was believed to 

 possess in his day, that we give the passage entire : 



" The walnut then approached, more large and t;ilJ, 

 Her fruit which we a nut, the gods an acorn call : 

 Jove's acorn, which does no small praise confess, 

 T ve called it man's ambrosia had been less ; 

 Nor can this head-like nut, shaped like the brain, 

 Within be said that form by change to gain, 

 Or C'aryon called by learned Greeks in vain : 

 For membranes soft as silk her kernel bind, 

 Whereof the inmost is of tendered kind, 

 Like those which on the brain of man we find. 

 AH which are in a seam-joined shell enclosed, 

 Which of tiiis brain the skull may be supposed. 

 This very skuil enveloped is again 

 In a green coat, her pericranium. 

 I^astly, that no objection may remain, 

 To thwart her near alliance- with the brain, 

 She nourishes the hair, remembering how 

 Heroflf deform'd, without her leaves does show, 



