From southern Indiana comes the Mc- 
Callister Hiccan, probably a Pecan x Shell- 
bark hybrid, which produces the nut 
which is at present the largest specimen 
of the whole Hickory species. This tree isa 
rapid grower, with very dark-green wax- 
like leaves. The tree has a tall, cylindrical 
form, but while the nut is of great size, 
the tree is a very shy bearer and can be 
recommended only as a beautiful shade 
tree, with a scanty crop of nuts which 
are a true curiosity and also of very high 
quality. (IV for shade, V for nuts in 
favored locations. ) 
The English (Persian) Walnut 
(Juglans Regia) 
The trees that give us this delicious 
nut are supposed to be natives of Persia, 
from which center they have spread both 
east and west and circumnavigated the 
globe. I have seen them in Japan, Korea, 
China, the valleys of the Himalayas, 
Persia, Palestine, Syria, Turkey, and then 
right across Europe from Constantinople 
to Edinburgh by way of Bulgaria, Yugo- 
slavia, Italy, Switzerland, France, Ger- 
many, England. In the eastern United 
States they are scattered from Massa- 
chusetts to Illinois, from New York to 
North Carolina, while we have a 
thoroughly established industry with 
many orchards on the Pacific coast, chiefly 
in California. 
The finest trees I ever saw were in 
a valley of the Taurus Mountains in 
southern Turkey, while the ruins of 
the Roman city of Baalbek in Syria are 
bowered in splendid Persian Walnut trees. 
To the eastern United States this tree is 
a foreigner. It is a native of a climate 
with a mild winter and a dry summer, 
somewhat like that of California. This 
may explain the puzzling experience that 
many people have had with it in the 
eastern parts of the United States. 
There are thousands of trees, nearly all 
seedlings, therefore each one a law to 
itself, scattered over the country, east of 
the Mississippi River, north of the Cotton 
Belt and south of upper New England and 
upper Michigan. Encouraged by one of 
these examples someone buys a tree from 
a nursery (as I did), probably a seedling 
of unknown origin, and it usually dies. Yet 
there is that old tree in So-and-so’s garden 
nearby that lives and bears crops of good 
nuts. Why did the nursery tree die? Then 
the tree planter hears that English Wal- 
nuts are growing on the shores of Lake 
Ontario. Hope rises again. He gets a tree 
from that area, and it may die in Mary- 
land of what is called winterkill, when it 
had not done so on the shore of Lake 
Ontario. 
Why these puzzling troubles? The an- 
swer is now reasonably well known. He 
has violated one of the three English Wal- 
nut “Musts”’ which are not difficult to 
follow if we just know. The three English 
Walnut “Musts” for the eastern United 
States are: 

An English Walnut tree on a lawn in Washington, D. C. 
14 
