WALNUT FAMILY 



Flouu'i's. — May, when lea\'es arc half grown ; monoecious. The 

 catkins of staminate flowers appear in the autumn as short cone- 

 like buds, slightly hairy, solitary or in pairs ; when mature aie three 

 to five inches long. The perianth, suljtended by an acute triangu- 

 lar bract, coated with tomcntum, is six-lobed ; lobes imbricate, 

 nearly orbicular. Stamens twenty to thirty, arranged in several 

 rows, with purple anthers surmounted by slightly lobed connectives, 

 l^istillate flowers are borne in a two to tive-flowered spike, ovate, 

 pointed, maturing later than the staminate. The bract and bract- 

 lets which form (he outer cmering uf the flower are green and hairy 

 abo\'e, covered with pale hairs beneatli, sometimes cut into a 

 laciniate border, sometimes undivided, sometimes greatly reduced. 

 Calyx four-lobed ; lobes imbricate, acute, light green, hairy. Stxies 

 two ; stigmas recurved, yellow green, tinged with red. 0\'ary in- 

 ferior, ovule solitary. 



Fruit. — Nut inclosed in an indehiscent in\olucrc, making a kind 

 of dry drupe, solitary or in pairs, globose or slightly pyriform, yel- 

 low green, roughly dotted, one and a half to two inches in diameter. 

 Tlie nut is oval or oblong, slightly flattened, without sutural ridges, 

 one and a quarter to one and a half inches in length, dark brown, 

 four-celled at top and bottom. Kernel sweet and edible. Cotyle- 

 dons deeply lobed. 



The Black Walntit growing alone is one of tlie grandest 

 and most massive trees of our flora, (liven a rich soil and 

 ample space, "it equals in the boldness of its ramifications 

 and the amplitude of its bead the best specimens of the oak 

 or chestnut." Its lower branches often sweep the ground, 

 while its upper tower si.xty or seventy feet into the air. Then, 

 too, its plumy yellow green foliage, tufted at the end of the 

 spray, long-petioled and narrow-leaved, catches and throws 

 the sunlight and makes of its very, shade a golden glow. 



This is the free creature protectetl by man. In the forest 

 living under the law (jf coni]ietition it becomes entirely dif- 

 ferent. There, the tnmk rises straight as a column forty, 

 fifty, or sixty feet, without the suggestion of a liranch, and 

 finally puts forth a narrow roimd- topped somewhat rigid 

 head, 



So much a long communion tends 

 To make us what wc .ire, 



A single Black ^\'alnut will lighten a dense foliage mass 

 wonderfully and has gi-eat value in a landscape for that rea- 



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