Cil JUGLANDA'ciwE. JUHiLANS. 14-31 



On barren scalps she makes fresh honours grow. 



Her timber is for various uses good ; 



The carver she supplies with useful wood. 



She makes the painter's fading colours last; 



A table she affords us, and repast ; 



E'en while we feast, her oil our lamp supplies ; 



The rankest poison by her virtues dies, 



The mad dog's foam, and taint of raging skies. 



The Pontic king, who lived where poisons grew, 



Skilful in antidotes, her virtue knew. 



Yet envious fates, that still with merit strive, 



And man, ungrateful from the orchard drive 



This sovereign plant ; excluded from the field, 



Unless some useless nook a station yield, 



Defenceless in the common road she stands, 



Exposed to restless war of vulgar hands; 



By neighbouring clowns, and passing rabble torn, 



Batter'd with stones by boys, and left forlorn." 



COWLKY'S Plants, book iv. 



Collinson, in his History of Somersetshire, speaking of the Glastonbury 

 thorn, mentions that there grew also, in the Abbey-church yard, on the north 

 side of St. Joseph's Chapel, a miraculous walnut tree, which never budded 

 forth before the feast of St. Barnabas (that is the llth of June), and on that 

 very day shot forth its leaves, and flourished like other trees of the same 

 species. He adds that this tree was much sought after by the credulous ; and 

 that " Queen Anne, King James, and many of the nobility of the realm, even 

 when the times of monkish superstition had ceased, gave large sums of money 

 for small cuttings from the original." (Hist, of Som. y vol. ii. p. 265.) This 

 tree was, no doubt, of the late variety called by the French Noyer de la St. 

 Jean. 



Propagation, $c. The species is propagated by the nut ; which, when the 

 tree is to be grown chiefly for its timber, is best sown where it is finally to 

 remain, on account of the taproot, which will thus have its full influence on 

 the vigour and prosperity of the tree. Where the tree is to be grown for fruit 

 on dry soils, or in rocky situations, it ought also to be sown where it is finally to 

 remain, for the same reasons. In soils on moist or otherwise unfavourable 

 subsoils, if sown where it is finally to remain, a tile, slate, or flat stone should 

 be placed under the nut at the depth of Sin. or 4 in., in order to give the tap- 

 root a horizontal direction ; or, if this precaution has been neglected, after 

 the plants have come up, the taproot may be cut through with a spade 6 in. 

 or 8 in. below the nut, as is sometimes practised in nurseries with young 

 plants of the horsechestnut, sweet chestnut, walnut, and oak. On the other 

 hand, when the walnut is planted in soil which has a dry or rocky subsoil, 

 or among rocks, no precaution of this sort is necessary : on the contrary, it 

 would be injurious, by preventing the taproot from descending, and deriving 

 that nourishment from the subsoil which, from the nature of the surface soil, 

 it could not there obtain. The varieties may be propagated by budding, 

 grafting, inarching, or layering, and, possibly, by cuttings of the root. 



Budding and Grafting the Walnut. Much has been written on this subject 

 by French authors ; from which it appears that, in the north of France, and in 

 cold countries generally, the walnut does not bud or graft easily by any mode ; 

 but that, in the south of France, and north of Italy, it may be budded or 

 grafted by different modes, with success. At Metz, the Baron de Tschoudy 

 found the flute method (fig. 1258.) almost the only one 

 which he could practise with success. By this mode, an 

 entire ring of bark, containing one or more buds, is put 

 on the upper extremity of the stock ; either exactly fitted 

 to it, as at fig. 1258. a ; or made to fit it by slitting up the 

 ring of bark, if too small for the stock, as at b ; or, if too 

 large, by slitting it up, and cutting out a small portion, so 1258 

 as that, when placed on the stock, it may fit it as closely 

 as in the entire ring a. When this mode of budding 

 is practised without heading down the stock, as in fig. 

 1250., it i.s called ring budding, grrffe en anncau. Both flute budding and 

 ring budding are generally practised in spring, when the bap is in motion ; 



