DECIDUOUS ORNAMENTAL TREES. 
197 
est degree praiseworthy. “ The Bergstras , [. Bergstrasse ] 
which extends from Heidelberg to Darmstadt, is all planted 
with walnuts ; for as by an ancient law, the Borderers were 
obliged to nurse up and take care of them, and that chiefly 
for their ornament and shade, so as a man may ride for 
many miles about that country, under a continual arbour 
or close walk, — the traveller both refreshed with the fruit 
and shade. How much such public plantations improve the 
glory and wealth of a nation ! In several places betwixt 
Hanau and Frankfort in Germany, no young farmer is per- 
mitted to marry a wife till he bring proof that he hath planted, 
and is the father of a stated number of walnut trees.”* 
The nuts are imported into this country in great quan- 
tities ; and as they are chiefly brought from Spain and 
the Madeiras, they are here almost entirely known by the 
name of the Madeira nut. The tree is but little culti- 
vated among us, though highly deserving more extensive fa- 
vour, both on account of its value and beauty. It grows 
well in the climate of the middle states, and bears freely ; a 
specimen eighteen or twenty years old, in the garden of the 
author, has reached thirty-five feet in height, and bears two 
or three bushels of fine fruit annually ; from which we have 
already propagated several hundred individuals. It is not 
perfectly hardy north of this. 
As an ornamental tree, Gilpin remarks, that the warm rus- 
set hue of its young foliage makes a pleasing variety among 
the vivid green of other trees, about the end of May ; and 
the same variety is maintained in summer, by the contrast of 
its yellowish hue, when mixed in any quantity with trees of 
a darker tint. It stands best alone, as the early loss of its 
Hunter’s Evelyn, p. 168. 
