WALNUT TREE. 379 



laughter, has been carried on with the accompaniment of 

 the nut-crackers. The merely dipping it into the salt, 

 too, gives time to form the joke, prepare the repartee, 

 or parry an adversary's argument. 



This delicate nut is enclosed with a care it well de- 

 serves. 



" Walnut, in rough furrowed coat secure." 



PHILIPS. 



Evelyn says it is thought better to beat the nuts off, 

 than to gather them from the tree by hand. " In Italy," 1 

 says he, " they arm the tops of long poles with nails and 

 iron for the purpose, and believe the beating improves 

 the tree, which I no more believe than I do that dis- 

 cipline would reform a shrew." 



The Spaniards peel Walnuts that are stale and hard, 

 and grate them over their tarts, cakes, Sec. One bushel 

 of nuts is supposed to yield fifteen pounds of clear, 

 peeled kernels; and from these are obtained half the 

 weight of oil ; the oil is more plentiful when drawn from 

 the fresh nut, but of finer quality if the nut be drier. 



Evelyn affirms that an Italian peasant, when he has a 

 pain in the side, drinks a pint of this fresh oil, and finds 

 immediate relief from it. In France, the kernels are cut 

 out of the shells before they are hardened, with a short 

 broad brass knife : these, from the manner of scooping 

 them out, are called cerneaux, and are eaten with wine 

 and salt. 



Mrs. Holderness says the Walnut tree is among the 

 most remarkable fruit-trees of the Crimea ; that in the 

 valleys of the south coast, it attains to a prodigious si/e, 

 and forms a most delightful shade around some of tin- 

 Tartar village*. " I have been confidentially assured, 1 ' 



