97 
The Figure of the Walnut. 
Walnut\ the Nuts differ much from 
ours in Etiropc, they being fmooth, much 
like a Nutmeg in fhape, and not much 
bigger; fome three cornered, all of them 
but thinly replenifhed with Kernels. 1 
[51] Chejinuts\ very fvveet 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 " 
(jfuglans nigra, L.). "The walnut-tree," continues Josselyn, "is the toughest 
wood in the countrie, and therefore made use of for hoops and bowes ; there being 
no yews there growing. In England, they made their bowes usually of witch- 
hasel " (that is, witch-elm, — Hint us montana, Bauh., Lindl. ; as see Gerard, p. 
1481 : but Carfinus, "in Essex, is called witch-hasell," — id.), 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 (New-Eng. Prospect, 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 
(Sylva, 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 
