84 FAMILIAR TREES 



which can, however, seldom be procured of a size 

 large enough for any but small articles. 



Burrs or excrescences are common on the stems 

 of the Walnut in Italy and in the Caucasus, 

 frequently measuring two or three feet across and 

 twelve or fifteen inches thick, and weighing five 

 or six hundredweight. These are often so prettily 

 mottled as to sell for as much as fifty or sixty 

 pounds a ton, for veneering. The Italian wood is 

 considered the best, that of Juglans ni'gra L., the 

 Black American Walnut, being inferior both to it 

 and to that from the Black Sea. 



The bark is thick and deeply furrowed on the 

 trunk, but smooth and grey on the younger 

 branches. As the Walnut generally forms its young 

 shoots in April and May, and does not, like the 

 Oak, remain in an actively vegetative condition all 

 through the summer, until surprised perchance by 

 early autumn frosts, its symmetry of outline is 

 seldom damaged by wind or cold. One of the 

 most distinctive structural features of this tree is 

 the pith of the young shoots, which, as can readily 

 be seen on cutting a branch across, is divided 

 up in the process of growth into a succession of 

 thin discs with hollow spaces between them. 



The tree generally comes into leaf and flower 

 in April ; but there are both early and late 

 varieties in cultivation. Of these, the former is 

 known as " Noyer Mesange," in the south of France, 

 having so thin a shell to the seed that it is com- 

 monly pierced by tom-tits (Gallic^, mesange). It 

 was no doubt to the late variety that the so-called 



