|kfo=(£n<jlanti5 Earities* 



97 



The Figure of the Walnut. 



Walnut, the Nuts differ much from 

 ours in Europe, they being fmooth, much 

 like a Nutmeg in fhape, and not much 

 bigger; fome three cornered, all of them 

 but thinly replenished with Kernels. 1 



[51] Chejlnuts) very fweet in tafte, and may be (as 



1 Carya, Nutt. In the Voyages, p. 69, the author speaks of the "walnut, 

 which is divers : some bearing square nuts ; others like ours, but smaller. There 

 is likewise black walnut, of precious use for tables, cabinets, and the like " 

 (Juglans nigra, L.). "The walnut-tree," continues Josselyn, "is the toughest 

 wood in the countrie, and therefore made use of for hoops and bowes; therebeing 

 no yews there growing. In England, they made their bowes usually of witch- 

 hasel"(that is, witch-elm, — Ulmus montana, Bauh., Lindl. ; as see Gerard, p. 

 14S1 : but Carpinus, "in Essex, is called witch-hasell," — ib.~), ash, yew, the best 

 of outlandish elm ; but the Indians make theirs of walnut." This was hickory, 

 and what Wood says belongs doubtless to the same. He calls it " something 

 different from the English walnut; being a great deal more tough and more 

 serviceable, and altogether heavy. And whereas our guns, that are stocked with 

 English walnut, are soon broken and cracked in frost, — being a brittle wood, — 

 we are driven to stock them new with the country walnut, which will endure all 

 blows and weather; lasting time out of mind." After speaking favorably of the 

 fruit, he adds (Xew-Eng. Prospedt, chap, vi.), "There is likewise a tree, in some 

 parts of the country, that bears a nut as big as a pear," — the butternut, doubtless 

 (Juglans cinerea, L.). Josselyn has told us (p. 48) of the oil which the Indians 

 managed to get from the acorns of the white oak. Roger Williams (Key, /. c, p. 

 220) says our native Americans made " of these walnuts ... an excellent oil, 

 good for many uses, but especially for the anointing of their heads." Michaux 

 (Sylzia, vol. i. p. 163) says the Indians used the oil of the butternut, and also (p. 

 185) of the shag-bark, "to season their aliments." Williams adds (/. c), " Of the 

 chips of the walnut-tree — the bark taken off — some English in the country 

 make excellent beer, both for taste, strength, colour, and inoffensive opening 

 operation." 



M 



