THE WALNUT. 



157 



are conspicuous in the axils of the leaves, in the 

 shape of short conical spurs, which are smooth, 

 and of a greenish brown hue. In' the following 

 summer these lengthen into drooping, cylindrical 

 catkins. The fertile flowers do not shew them- 

 selves before the year that they bear fruit, when 

 they appear among the leaves at the extremities 

 of the shoots, and are at no time so conspicuous 

 as the barren flowers. 



The poet Virgil remarks, that when the Walnut 

 produces an abundance of blossom, a good corn- 

 harvest may be expected, and that the reverse 

 will be the case when it bears a profusion of leaves 

 and few flowers. Agricultural maxims of this 

 kind are frequently founded in truth, but I am 



