82 FAMILIAR TREES 



Antidotes employed by Mithridates King of Pontus ; 

 and the bitter principle so abundant in the plant — 

 ■especially in the leaves, the unripe husk or "peri- 

 carp " of the fruit, and the brown skin or " testa " 

 of the seed — has rendered it universally popular as 

 a vermifuge. Similarly, a decoction of the leaves 

 was used by anglers to water the ground, so as to 

 make worms come to the surface. 



Introduced into Italy before the Christian era, it 

 was named Juglans, "Jove's acorn," and was 

 looked upon as sacred to Diana, whose festivals 

 were held beneath its shade. This seems to have 

 been the origin of the custom of scattering walnuts 

 at weddings. 



The Walnut belongs to a small Order of trees 

 and shrubs known as Juglan'dece, comprising only 

 five genera and about thirty species, which are 

 mostly natives of North America. The Order is 

 •characterised by its aromatic leaves, which are ex- 

 stipulate, alternate, and pinnately compound; by 

 having staminate and pistillate flowers in separate 

 catkins on the same tree ; by an ovary formed 

 from two or four carpels, but one-chambered, sur- 

 mounted by the perianth, and containing a single 

 •erect and unbent ovule, and by the fleshy fruit, 

 containing a hard " nut " or " endpcarp," and a 

 .seed with oily cotyledons. 



The Walnut is one of the largest trees in the 

 •Order, growing rapidly so as to reach a height of 

 •twenty feet in ten years, when it begins to bear 

 fruit ; and ultimately not unfrequently attaining a 

 ieight of between sixty and seventy feet, with a 



