WALNUTS. 
Of the various trees which compose the vast forests of North America east 
of the Mississippi, the Walnut ranks after the Oak, among the genera, the 
species of which are most multiplied. In this particular, the soil of the 
United States is more favoured than that of Europe, in no part of which is 
any species of this tree indigenous. I have distinguished in the United 
States ten species of Walnut, and others will probably be discovered in 
Louisiana : travellers who visit these regions to explore their natural his- 
tory, should direct their attention to this class of vegetables, so interesting 
from the useful applications of their wood in the arts. There is room to 
hope, also, that species may be discovered, susceptible, like the Pecannut 
Hickory, of rapid improvement by the aid of grafting and attentive culti- 
vation. Some weight is given this consideration, by an observation which 
I have often heard repeated by my father, that the fruit of the Common 
European Walnut, in its natural state, is harder than that of the American 
species just mentioned, and inferior to it in size and quality. To the 
members of agricultural societies in the. United States it belongs, to extend 
their observations and experiments on this subject, after the example of our 
ancestors, to whom we are indebted for a rich variety of fruits, equally 
salutary and beautiful. 
The Walnuts of North America appear to present characters so distinct 
as to require their division into two sections. These characters consist 
principally in the form of the barren aments or catkins, and in the greater 
or less rapidity of vegetation in the trees. The first section is composed 
of WMlnuts with single aments, (PI. 29 and 30,) and includes two species : 
the Black Walnut and the Butternut; to which is added the European 
Walnut. The second section consists of such as have compound aments, 
(PI. 36,) and comprises eight species : the Pecannut Hickory, Bitternut 
Hickory, Water Bitternut Hickory, Mockernut Hickory, Shellbark Hickory, 
Xhick Shellbaik Hickory, Pignut Hickory, and Nutmeg Hickory. The 
three first species of the second section bear some relation to those of the 
first, in their buds which are not covered with scales. For this reason 
I have placed them immediately next, beginning with the Pecannut Hick- 
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