184. WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
ticularly in the Connecticut valley, where it attains a very large 
size. Itis of very rapid growth when young. 
From the bark of this tree an extract is made, which is 
sometimes employed as a medicine, and 1s valued as a safe 
purgative, peculiarly mild in its operation. The bark and the 
nut-shells are also used to give a brown color to wool. ‘he 
Shakers at Lebanon dye a rich purple with it. Bancroft says 
that the husks of the shells of the butternut and black walnut, 
may be employed in dyeing a fawn color, cven without mordanis. 
By means of them, however, greater brightness and durability 
are given to the color. The bark of the trunk gives a black, 
that of the root a fawn color, but less powerfully. From the 
sap an inferior sugar has been obtained. ‘The leaves, which 
abound m acrid matter, have been used, in the form of powdcr, 
as a substitute for Spanish flies. 
The young, half-grown nuts, gathered early in June, make 
excellent pickles, and are much used for that purpose, the clam- 
my down being removed, before pickling, by plungimg them 
in boiling water and rubbmg with a coarse cloth. 
The wood is light, of a pale reddish color, of little strength, 
but durable when exposed to heat and moisture, rather tough, 
and not liable to the attacks of worms. For gun-stocks, it is 
equally stiff, elastic, and tough with black walnut, but less hard. 
It makes beautiful fronts of drawers, as used by the Shakers 
at Lebanon, and excellent light, tough, and durable wooden 
bowls. In the western part of the State, coffins arc often made 
of it. Where abundant, it is used for posts and rails, and for the 
smaller timbers m house frames. It is sometimes uscd for the 
panels of coaches and other carriages, being pliable, not splitting 
when nails are driven into it, and, from its porosity, receiving 
paint extremely well. 
Michaux says that the butternut is found in Upper and Lower 
Canada, on the shores of Lake Evie, in the States of Kentucky 
and Tennessee, and on the banks of the Missouri. It occurs in 
all the New England States, and in New York and Pennsy!- 
vania. 
In Richmond, I measured a butternut tree which was thirteen 
feet and three inches in circumference in the smallest place below 
