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COMMON EUROPEAN WALNUT. 
JuGLANs REGIA. J. foUolis subseptcnis, ovalibus^ glabris, subserratis, subæquaU 
ibus : f7'uctibus subovalibus. 
The Walnut which for several centuries has been cultivated in Europe 
is a native of Asia. According to an ancient but uncertain tradition, its 
fruit was brought from Persia with the Peach and the Apricot. My father, 
who, in the years 1782, ’83, and ’84. visited that part of the East to examine 
its natural productions, first ascertained with exactness, the origin of this 
tree : he found it in the natural state, in the province of Ghilan, which lies 
on the Caspian Sea, between the 35th and 40th degrees of latitude. 
The period of its introduction into Europe, a point on which ancient 
authors leave us in obscurity, is proved to be remote, by several rites in use 
among the Romans ; such, for instance, as the distribution of nuts in the 
Cerealia. In the village festival of the Rosière, instituted by St. Medard, 
at Salency, Department of the Oise, 1200 years ago, it is directed, that an 
offering composed of nuts and other fruits of the country, shall be presented 
to the young maid who is crowned : which proves the tree to have been 
already naturalized in that part of France. 
The Walnut is common throughout the centre of Europe, but it flourishes 
most in the western and southern Departments of France, in Spain and in 
Italy, which approach nearest to the latitude in which it grows natu- 
rally. In France, it is only in the west and south, where the vegetation 
of the Walnut is perfectly secure from frost, that its wood is of a superior 
quality, and that its fruit is regularly yielded in sufficient abundance to be- 
come an article of commerce. 
The European Walnut is one of the tallest and most beautiful among 
fruit trees, and one of the most remarkable for the amplitude of its summit, 
and the thickness of its shade. On the trunk of old trees, which frequently 
are several feet in diameter, the bark is thick and deeply furrowed ; on the 
upper branches it is gray and smooth, a good deal resembling that of the 
Butternut. The leaves are borne by long petioles, and are composed of 2, 
3, and sometimes 4 pair of leaflets, surmounted by an odd one. The leaflets 
are oval and smooth ; when bruised, they exhale a strong aromatic odor. 
In the extreme heat of summer, the emanations from the Walnut are so 
powerful as to produce unpleasant effects upon some persons, if they slum- 
ber in its shade. 
The flowers of the Common European Walnut, like those of the Black 
Walnut and Butternut, appear before the unfolding of the leaves ; the bar- 
