CHAP. C1I.

jugi.anda'cea:. ./u'gi.ans.

1425

tree. The fruit is green and oval;and, in the wild species, contains asmall hard nut. In the most es-teemed cultivated varieties, the fruitis of a roundish oval and is stronglyodoriferous; about If in. long, andfrom IJ in. to in. in diameter.

The nut occupies two thirds of thevolume of the fruit. Towards autumnthe husk softens, and, decaying fromabout the nut, allows it to fall out.

The shell is slightly channeled, and,in most of the cultivated varieties,so thin as to be easily crushed by thelingers. The kernel is of an agree-able taste; and is covered with a finepellicle, and separated by a thinpartition, which may be readily de-tached both from the shell andfrom the kernel. The plant is some-what tender when young, and aptto be injured by spring frosts :nevertheless, it grows vigorously; and, in the climate of London , attains theheight of 20 ft. in 10 years, beginning about that time to bear fruit. Thetree attains a great age, as well as size; and, as it advances in both, increasesin productiveness. There is, perhaps, no tree that sends down a morevigorous taproot than the walnut; and this it will do in the clefts of rocks;and, when it reaches good soil, produce a most ample head, and so thick atrunk and root, as in time to burst even rocks. Hence, there is no tree lessliable to be torn up by the roots than the walnut; and, for this reason, andalso because it makes its shoots rapidly, instead of continuing to elongatethem all the summer, like some other trees (such as the larch, the oak, thepoplar, &c.), it forms an erect well-balanced tree, even in exposed situations.The walnut is generally considered injurious, by its shade, both to man andplants. Pliny says that even the oak will not thrive near the walnut tree; which,if it be true, may be owing to the interference of their roots in the subsoil: butit is certain, that neither grass, nor field nor garden crops, thrive well underthe walnut. The late Mr. Keen, an extensive market-gardener at Isle-worth, being the owner of the land he cultivated, planted, about the begin-ning of the present century, a number of rows of walnut trees, at consider-able distances from each other, across his grounds, in order at once toproduce shelter to his herbaceous crops, and fruit for the market. He wascelebrated for the growth of strawberries; and Mr. Phillips, the author ofPomarium Britannicmn (published in 1820), says that Mr. Keen informed himthat the walnut trees were so injurious to his strawberry beds, that the plantsseldom bore fruit in their neighbourhood. The injury done to grass, andother plants on the surface of the ground, must be chiefly owing to thedecaying of the fallen leaves, and the washing into the soil of their astringentproperties; consequently, the evil may be much alleviated by sweeping themU P, and carrying them away as soon as they fall.

Geography and History. The walnut is a native of Persia ; and, accordingto Loureiro, of the north of China . Pallas found it frequently in the Penin-sula of Taurida , and on the south of Caucasus, growing spontaneously to aarge size, so as to appear almost indigenous; the fruit ripening about the end° August. The elder Michaux, who, in the years 1782,1783, and 1784, visited. P r °vince of Ghilan, was the first in modern times to ascertain, with cer-ai uty, that the walnut belonged to the same country as the peach and theapricot. It was known to the Greeks, whose names for it were Persicon andasilicon, the Persian and royal nut. According to Pliny ’s account, the

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