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WALNUT. JUGLANS. 



Natural order, Amentacea. A genus of the Monacia 

 Polyandria class. 



THE walnut-tree is evidently a native of the northern 

 parts of Persia and China, where it grows wild ; and the 

 Grecian names for this fruit, Persicon and Basilicon, 

 Persian or Royal Nut, bespeak it to have been brought 

 from Persia, either by the monarchs of Greece themselves, 

 or sent thither from the kings of Persia. According to 

 Pliny's account, book 15, chap. 22, "the Greeks after- 

 wards called them Cory on, on account of the heaviness of 

 the head which their strong smell caused." 



" Walnuts were first brought into Italy by Vitellius, a 

 little before the death of Tiberius the emperor ; and the 

 Romans," continues Pliny, " honoured them with the 

 name of Jovis-glans, acorn or mast of Jove." Some of the 

 later Greeks also called them , A/o$ Aavo$, and the Latins 

 Diu-glans, whence was formed the word Juglans. 



These nuts appear to have been first brought to this 

 country from France, and were therefore called Gaul 

 nuts ; from which by a common transition, the English 

 formed the word Walnut. .^ ' 



Pliny has written much on the medical virtues of these 

 nuts, book 23, chap. 18, wherein he says, that " the more 

 walnuts one eats, with more ease will he drive worms out 

 of his stomach ; and that, eaten before meals, they lessen 

 the effects of any poisonous food ; eaten after onions," 

 he states, " they keep them from rising, and prevent the 

 disagreeable smell." 



