WALNUT. 345 



which account it is not safe to sit uncovered beneath 

 them, nor is it desirable to plant them too near dwelling- 

 houses. Pliny says, the oak will not thrive near the 

 walnut-tree;" and Mr. Keen, who is so justly celebrated 

 for growing strawberries, informs me, that the walnut-tree 

 is so injurious to strawberry beds, that they seldom bear 

 fruit in the neighbourhood of that tree. 



The largest plantation of walnut-trees in England, at 

 the present time, is in the county of Surrey. 



Gerard says, " the walnut-tree groweth in fields neere 

 common highwaies, in a fat and fruitful ground, and in 

 orchards." It therefore appears to us, that it must have 

 been introduced earlier than the date mentioned in the 

 Hortus Kewensis (1562), as this was only about thirty 

 years before Gerard wrote his account, when these trees 

 seem to have been very common in the fields ; and Turner 

 says in his Herbal of 1564, that it is so common that it 

 needs no description. 



Evelyn says, Burgundy abounds with walnut-trees, 

 where they stand in the midst of goodly wheat lands, at 

 sixty and a hundred feet distance ; and so far are they 

 from hurting the crop, that they are looked upon as great 

 preservers by keeping the ground warm; nor do the roots 

 hinder the plough. Whenever they fell a tree, which is 

 only the old and decayed, they always plant a young one 

 near him. In several places betwixt Hanau and Frank- 

 fort in Germany, no young farmer is permitted to marry 

 a wife, till he brings proof that he has planted a stated 

 number of walnut-trees. 



The walnut-tree was formerly cultivated in England for 

 the sake of the wood, which was in great esteem for cabi- 

 net goods, before mahogany and other curious woods 

 were imported from America into this kingdom, which 

 was about the beginning of the eighteenth century, when 

 the use of mahogany was discovered by the following 



