JUGLAXDACEAE 87 



JUGLANDACEAE. Walnut Family. 



Includes 6 genera and about 35 species, all trees with com- 

 pound deciduous leaves, mostly North American. Many are use- 

 ful for their wood or nuts, or both. 



JUGLANS, L. The W.\lxuts. 



Juglans nigra, L. Black walnut. 



A well-known large or medium-sized tree, with dark brown 

 heart-wood. Until it became too scarce it was the favorite ma- 

 terial for cabinet-making and furniture of all kinds in the eastern 

 United States. After the period of solid walnut furniture came 

 that of walnut-veneered furniture, but even that is not common 

 now. During the World War there was a great demand for wal- 

 nut for gunstocks, and many isolated roadside and farm-yard trees 

 were located with the aid of the Boy Scouts and sold to the gun 

 factories. The wood is durable as well as handsome and easily 

 worked, and when it was abundant it was used for crossties, posts, 

 etc., and probably also for fence-rails. Its present vise is mostly 

 for sewing machines and musical instruments. Some is exported 

 to Europe in the form of logs. 



The walnut blooms in spring, just before the leaves unfold. 

 The large oily nuts make very good eating, and enter into com- 

 merce in a small way in country towns. They are also used in 

 confectionery. Their hulls were formerly used extensively for 

 dyeing homespun cloth. The tree is often planted around houses 

 in town and country, partly for shade and partly for the sake of 

 its nuts. 



References: Brush 2, Wheeler: also U. S. Forest Service Cir- 

 cular 88 (190T). 



It grows naturally in rich woods and bottoms, in soils well 

 supplied with lime or potash, or both, but can be cultivated in soils 

 below the average in fertility, and is often seen along roadsides 

 outside of its natural range. On account of its preference for rich 

 soils, vast quantities must have been destroyed in clearing land in 

 the pioneer days, and the present stand must be only a fraction of 

 the original. Its known natural distribution in Alabama is about 

 as follows : 



