6Q4 philosophical transactions. [anno 1701. 



The oil which is pressed out of the walnut-tree, in certain provinces, is used 

 instead of butter and olive-oil. In Berry, where they have very good wool, 

 and where they trade very much in cattle, they have yet but very little butter; 

 and that little which they have is worth nothing, and is very dear; so that they 

 use nut-oil in dressing their meat. For this reason, there are vast numbers of 

 walnut-trees planted in the middle of the ploughed lands, so that afar off one 

 would take these lands for woods of walnut-trees. The want of these trees in 

 this country obliges the inhabitants to cultivate them, which they take care to 

 nourish in particular places, as in a sort of nursery, in order to plant them 

 afresh when they die, whether it be of age, which is rare, or whether they 

 decay, or that they are felled for the timber. 



The last autumn being in an orchard near a place where they bred up a vast 

 number of young walnut-trees, I perceived in the middle a sort of leaf or 

 foliage which I had never noticed before ; and on examining the taste, smell, 

 wood, and figure of the tree, persuaded me that it was a walnut-tree, and one 

 that I had never read or heard of. 



The common walnut-tree bears its leaves by pairs, on a stalk which termi- 

 nates with a like leaf, commonly larger than the rest : And it has very seldom 

 above three pairs on each stalk. But this has sometimes four or five pairs, and 

 sometimes more, which are sometimes opposite, other times alternate. The 

 first pair, and sometimes the second, are less cut than the rest, being so only 

 on the circumference : but the others are cut so deep, that it looks as if the 

 nerve in the middle of the leaf was only a stalk. And the cuts of the leaves 

 are sometimes by pairs, sometimes single on one side. These leaves are some- 

 times forked at the end, and sometimes end with a point. There are also some 

 places, where it looks as if the leaf was torn on purpose, almost like the 

 angelica canadensis, foliis quasi praemorsis. There are others, where it seems 

 that they are double, as if the stalk or the nerve was winged, just as the winged 

 stems or trunks or caules alati. 



On the Asbeslus, and the Manner of spinning and making an incombustible Cloth 

 of it. By Signior John Ciampini of Rome. N° 273, p. Qll. 



Sig. Ciampini mentions four sorts of the asbestus stone, of which he has 

 specimens in his museum. The first was sent him from Corsica or Corfu, which 

 was of a woody form, of half a palm length and more, of a pinkish colour. 

 The second sort is of a silver colour, softer, about 3 inches long, and was 

 brought from Sestri di Ponente in Liguria. The third, which is the worst of 

 all, resembles scales or laminas, one upon another, like an onion, of a blackish 

 earth colour, with some white, black, and dark red veins interspersed, scarcely 



