COMMON WALNUT. 147 



Knight, also, invariably succeeded in budding the Walnut, 

 by using the minute buds that are found at the base of the 

 annual shoots of this tree, and which, as he says, " are 

 almost concealed in the bark, and which rarely, if ever, 

 vegetate, but in the event of the destruction of the large 

 prominent buds which occupy the middle and opposite ends 

 of the annual wood." These he inserted on yearling stocks 

 which grew in pots, whose vegetation had been retarded by 

 being kept during the spring and early summer in a cold 

 northern exposure, until the small buds above mentioned 

 were formed on the current year's shoots of the trees in- 

 tended to be propagated, when the pots containing the 

 young plants were " brought into a forcing-house and there 

 budded." 



No tree requires less pruning, from its earliest age to 

 its full developement, than the Walnut, and, except for 

 the shortening of over rampant and ill-balanced branches, 

 the knife ought never to be used ; close pruning, or ab- 

 scision by the stem, is invariably injurious, and we have 

 repeatedly observed, when this has been done, that a 

 decay, to a greater or less extent, always took place at 

 the lower edge of the wound, in consequence of its slow 

 cicatrization, and the spongy nature of the young wood. 



The soil in which the Walnut luxuriates and attains 

 its greatest dimensions is that of a deep, stiffish, dry- 

 bottomed loam, but it thrives in various others, provided 

 they are free from stagnant moisture. Loudon says " the 

 fruit has the best flavour and produces most oil, when 

 the trees grow on calcareous soils or among calcareous 

 rocks." 



In addition to the statistics of the Walnut contained 

 in the " Arboretum Britannicum," we may mention one 

 at Dunstan Hill, near Newcastle-on-Tyne, with a circum- 



