The Walnuts and the Hickories 



solitary; stigmas red, prominent. Fruit i to 2 in almost sessile 

 clusters, globose i^ to 2 inches in diameter; husk yellow-green, 

 pitted, strongly aromatic, spongy, indehiscent; shell hard, deeply 

 sculptured, kernel convoluted, oily, sweet, edible. Frejerred 

 habitat, rich woods. Distribution, southern Ontario to Florida, 

 west to Nebraska and Texas. Uses: Fine shade and park tree; 

 lumber valuable for veneering furniture, interior finish of houses, 

 gun stocks and coffins, and for boat and shipbuilding. Nuts 

 locally commercial. Husks occasionally used for dyeing and 

 tanning. 



The early settlers did not realise the folly they committed by 

 chopping down black walnut trees, rolling them together and 

 burning them. They were clearing the land to make farms, and 

 trees were weeds they had to conquer. They did not discriminate 

 between species in the general holocaust. They knew that 

 black walnut was durable, so made fence posts and rails of it. 

 Besides, this wood split easily. 



The peculiar fitness of black walnut wood for gun stocks and 

 for furniture was realised later. Trees were sacrificed by thousands 

 to supply the home and foreign markets, and only Nature planted 

 for the generations to come. The result is the present shortage 

 of walnut lumber, and its excessive price. Enterprising individ- 

 uals go into cleared ground and pull the stumps of trees long 

 dead. They are still sound, and there is valuable veneering 

 stuff in the most of them. Old and worn furniture of solid black 

 walnut is bought and sawed thin for the same purpose. Do we 

 realise yet the usefulness and the beauty of black walnut wood? 

 The silvery grain, the rich, violet-purple tones in the brown heart 

 wood, the exquisite shading of its curly veinings, and the lasting 

 qualities of the wood? If we did, we would plant groves of it. 



As a fruit tree the black walnut has limitations. The oil 

 in the kernel soon becomes rancid, so that there can be but a 

 local market for the nuts, though they are very good for a time, 

 when carefully dried. 



The black walnut is majestic as a shade tree — a noble orna- 

 ment to parks and pleasure grounds. It needs room and distance 

 to show its luxuriant crown and stately trunk to advantage. 

 Then no tree excels it. " It unites almost all the qualities desirable 

 in a tree: beauty, gracefulness and richness of foliage in every 

 period of its growth." The bark and husks may be employed in 



129 



