loo THE WALNUT FAMILY. 



timber has been of such inestimable value that it is fast becoming exhausted 

 throughout the country. 



In West Virginia there is clinging to this tree a bit of folk-lore which 

 asserts that no weeds will grow under its shade. It is therefore in such 

 places that the people are prone to seek their best sods. In explanation of 

 this curious fact it has been suggested that as the tree flourishes in unusually 

 rich soil, the grass about it is sufficiently lusty to choke out any weeds that 

 might there venture to spring up. Had the tree been protected by some such 

 myth as that of its being inhabited by a spirit, one not unusual in ancient 

 lore, it would probably not have been so recklessly destroyed by the axe as 

 has been the case during the last century. 



J. cinerea, white walnut, oil-nut or butter-nut, is a tree of smaller size than 

 the black walnut and from which in one way it can always be known by the 

 dissimilarity of its fruit. Within an oblong, pointed husk densely viscid and 

 disagreeable to the touch its nut is enclosed. The shell moreover is very 

 rough and vertically ridged. The under sides of the leaves retain always 

 their pubescence, and even at maturity there are sometimes traces of it to be 

 seen on their upper surfaces. When very young these leaves are almost a 

 pale yellow, but become as they grow older a deep green. Through the 

 south it would seem that the tree is most generally called white walnut, while 

 northward it is best known as the butter-nut. 



NUTMEG HICKORY. {Plate XXXV.) 

 Hicbria inyristiccpfbrmis. 



FAMILY SHAPE HEIGHT RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Walnut. Croivn^ ofen, narrozu. Zo-\oq feet. Alabama to South Carolina. April. 



Bark: brownish red; broken irregularly into thin scales. Leaves: odd-pin- 

 nate, with five to eleven obovate or ovate-lanceolate, almost sessile leaflets, pointed 

 at the apex and squared or rounded at the base, the terminal one wedge-shaped 

 and having a very short petiole ; serrate ; at maturity glabrous above, silvery white 

 and very. lustrous below ; when young, covered underneath with a reddish pubes- 

 cence. Fruit : enclosed within an oval, or oblong thin husk ; four ridged and 

 splitting when ripe to the base; scurfy pubescent. Nuts : oval ; smooth, reddish 

 brown and mottled with grey. Kernel: sweet. 



Although this tree resembles in growth the pig-nut hickory it is far more 

 beautiful, the under surfaces of its leaves being so highly lustrous as to add 

 an intense charm to its foliage. It is very local, but through different sec- 

 tions of the country has been found to flourish, in various kinds of soil. In 

 the calcareous soil of Alabama, and in Mississippi towards the central part 

 of the state it grows splendidly and is apparent in thick forests. That, in 1 894, 

 Dr. Charles Mohr traced it to its haunts in the latter state was through the 

 coincidences of his having first seen its nuts among an exhibit from Missis- 



