WALNUT FAMILY 



son. The objection to the tree is that the leaves are late in 

 coming out in the spring and fall early in the autumn so that 

 it often stands naked when its neighbors are apparently in 

 full leaf ; moreover, it is the host of many caterpillars. 



The bark of the trunk is very dark and the branches seen 

 in contrast with the light foliage look positively black. The 

 walnut grows more rapidly than is generally supposed, and 

 had there been reasonable care in cutting only the large trees 

 and protecting the small ones, it need never have become as 

 rare as it now is. The nut cannot compare in flavor and 

 sweetness with that of the European species, but the wood is 

 far superior. 



During the tertiary period many species of walnut were 

 abundant in Europe ; now the genus is native only in America 

 and Asia. 



The European Walnut, Juglans regia, is a native of Persia, 

 the home of the peach and the apricot. It was known to the 

 Greeks whose names for it were Persicon and Basilicon, the 

 Persian and royal nut. Curiously enough, it was the fruit of 

 the walnut and not of the oak that the Romans called the 

 acorn. When Ovid tells us that the people of the golden 

 age lived upon 



Acorns that had fallen 

 From the towering tree of Jove, 



he had in mind not Quercus, the .oak, but Juglans, the wal- 

 nut. 



Cowley, in his poem on Plants, says : 



The walnut then approached, more large and tall 

 Her fruit which we a nut, the gods an acorn call ; 

 Jove's acorn, which does no small praise confess, 

 To have called it man's ambrosia had been less. 



By the Greeks it was highly esteemed and dedicated to 

 Diana whose festivals were held beneath its shade. The 

 Greeks and Romans strewed walnuts at their weddings, and 

 Horace, Virgil, and Catullus allude to the custom. Spenser 

 mentions walnuts as employed in Christmas games. 



272 



