6l6 THE PRINCIPLES OF BOTANY. 
« 
It is, however, as a timber tree, and that, too, most effec¬ 
tive and handsome in its combinations, and especially about 
the homestead, that the walnut is most valuable. 
The author just quoted tells us that a tree “ accurately 
measured by Professor du Breuill, of Normandy, was up¬ 
wards of twenty-three feet in circumference; and in some 
parts of France there are walnut trees, 300 years old, with 
stems of much greater thickness. In southern parts of Eng¬ 
land the trees grow vigorously and hear abundantly when 
not injured by late frosts in spring.” He goes on to say— 
" Trees of choice quality of wood have been sold for £600 
each. Its plantation, therefore, should not be neglected, but 
not too near dwellings, as some persons are affected by the 
powerful aroma of its foliage.” 
Evelyn states that Burgundy abounded with walnut trees, 
“ where they stand in the midst of goodly wheat lands, at 
sixty and a hundred feet distance, and so far are they from 
hurting the crop, that they are looked upon as great pre¬ 
servers, by keeping the ground warm, nor do the roots hinder 
the plough;” and he adds, “ that in several places betwixt 
Hanau and Frankfort, in Germany, no young farmer is per¬ 
mitted to marry a wife till he brings proof that he is the 
father of a stated number of trees, and the law is inviolably 
observed to this day, for the extraordinary benefit the tree 
affords the inhabitants.”* 
Loudon states that, in France, about 1806, no less than 
12,000 were annually required for musket-stocks. 
All honour, then, to the planter of the walnut tree. We 
had as lief put our legs beneath the walnut as the mahogany, 
as the wood is, in our opinion, of a finer texture and colour, 
and this we can grow at home, meanwhile enjoying its fruit. 
It is a handsome tree, towering upwards to the sky, and so 
doing but little mischief to the farmer; and its growth would 
surely be more profitable, if put here and there in convenient 
places, than the miserable topped elms, which are truly a 
destructive weed to many an English farm. And yet land¬ 
lords are sometimes so chary of their rows of these that they 
will rather allow them to be trimmed to the shape of a French 
poodle’s tail than have any of them rooted out, and that, too, 
where they are so thick as to ruin each other. 
* Quoted from Selby’s ( Forest Trees/ 
