132 
WAYSIDE AND WOODLAND TREES. 
Asia Minor to Greece. The learned Roman, Varro, who was 
born B.c. ii6, and died B.c. 28, mentions it as existing in Italy 
in his day ; and Pliny tells us it was brought thence from Persia. 
The date of its introduction to Britain is usually set down as 
about the middle of the sixteenth century, but it was probably 
at least a century earlier, for Gerarde, writing at the close of 
the si.xteenth century’, describes it as a tree commonly to be seen 
in orchards, and in fields near the highways, where a very new 
importation was not likely to be found. But to return to the 
name : there can be little doubt that it is a contraction of 
Walsh-nut (in modern spelling, Welsh-nut), meaning foreign. 
This is German, and while the modern sons of the Vaterland 
write it Wallnuss (occasionally Walshenuss), the Dutch form 
is Wallnoot. That this is the true derivation is made pretty 
certain by Gerarde, who calls it “Walnut, and of some Walsh- 
nut.” 
That the new importation was fully appreciated in Europe 
for its fruit may be judged by the extent to which its cultivation 
had spread in Evelyn’s day', for he tells us the trees abounded in 
Burgundy, where they stood in the midst of goodly wheat-lands. 
He says : “ In several places betwixt Hanau and Frankfort in 
Germany no young farmer is permitted to marry a wife till he 
bring proof that he hath planted and is a father of such a 
stated number of [Walnut] trees, and the law is inviolably' 
observed to this day', for the extraordinary benefit the tree 
affords the inhabitants.” 
The Walnut is a handsome tree, growing to a height of forty 
to sixty feet, with a bole twenty feet or more in circumference, 
and a huge spreading head. The bark is of a cool grey colour, 
smooth when young, but as the tree matures deep longitudinal 
furrows form, and it becomes very rugged. The twisted 
branches take a direction more upward than horizontal, but 
in early summer they are almost completely hidden by the 
masses of large and handsome leaves of warm green colour and 
