The Nut Culturist / A Treatise on Propogation, Planting, and Cultivation of Nut Bearing Trees and Shrubs Adapted to the Climate of the United States

by Andrew S. Fuller

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH FILBERTS.

Believing that our failures are often of far more value, in the line of education, than our successes, I shall not hesitate to place my own on record as guideposts to those who may be seeking the most direct road to success in nut culture. Having had a rather extended and expensive experience in the cultivation of filberts, I propose giving a brief account of it here, with the hope that it may save some other enthusiast from losing time and money.

My attention was first specially drawn to these nuts in 1858,—while a resident of the city of Brooklyn, N. Y.,—by a neighbor who had a moderately large garden, on three sides of which he had planted a row of English filberts. These trees, at the time, had attained a hight of about fifteen feet, with broad, open heads, and they rarely failed to produce a heavy crop of nuts, which sold readily at very remunerative prices, for as they were always gathered in the husks and sold by the pound, the amount obtained from these few trees seemed to be enormous, considering the small space they occupied in this garden. The owner of these filbert trees, being an Englishman by birth, never tired of showing his English filberts to visitors, and of descanting upon their value, as well as upon the stupid indifference of the Yankees in neglecting the cultivation of these valuable nuts. I imbibed enough of my neighbor's enthusiasm to secure a good stock of his plants, a few years later, for cultivation in my grounds here. The third year after planting, quite a number of the bushes produced a fair crop of nuts, but I noticed that an occasional shoot was affected with blight, and these were immediately cut out and burned. The next season more of the branches were affected, and from these the blight extended downward on the main stems, and when these were cut away the sprouts from below made a very vigorous and apparently healthy growth, some reaching a hight of six feet the first season, but a year or two later these were also attacked and destroyed by blight.

Finding that the filberts in my grounds were doomed, I visited my old neighbor in Brooklyn, hoping to learn something of the origin or cause of the disease; but the blight had invaded his garden, and not a tree remained. On my return from this visit I had every filbert and hazel plant on my place dug up and burned, thinking by such means to stamp out the disease. After waiting ten years, I thought it time to try filberts again, and to be certain of securing pure and healthy plants, I concluded to raise them from the nuts, and sent an order for a few pounds of the largest and best variety to be found in the celebrated filbert orchards of Kent, Eng. In due time the nuts arrived, and they were very large, and all of one variety, as ordered. They were mixed with sand and buried in the garden until the following spring, then sown thinly in shallow drills and covered with about two inches of rich soil.

[FIG. 40]. ENGLISH FILBERT ORCHARD, FIVE YEARS FROM SEED.

[FIG. 41]. VARIETIES OF FILBERTS AND HAZEL SEEDLINGS.

[FIG. 42]. EXTRA LARGE HAZEL SEEDLING OR ROUND ENGLISH FILBERT.

At the close of the first season the plants were from one to two feet high and quite stocky, with a mass of small fibrous roots. The next spring they were transplanted into nursery rows, and set about one foot apart. The third spring I laid out about one acre for a specimen filbert orchard, and after the ground had been thoroughly prepared, the plants were set ten feet apart in the row, and twelve between the rows. No crop was planted among the trees, but the ground was kept clean and free from weeds during the summer, with cultivator and harrow. All suckers springing from the base of the stems were removed as soon as they appeared, and under such treatment the plants made a vigorous growth. Two years later quite a number of the trees came into bearing, these showing that I was likely to have nearly as many varieties in my orchard as there were trees. Some of the varieties might be better than the parent, but the greater part were certain to be inferior in size. The fourth year after planting in the orchard the trees gave me a heavy crop of nuts, and they made a fine appearance as one looked down between the long rows, as shown in Fig. 40. But this season my old enemy, the filbert blight, appeared again, and branches and main stems began to blacken and the leaves to wither. But I had bushels of nuts and in great variety, and by sending specimen baskets of the long-husk varieties to dealers in New York, learned that there was an almost unlimited demand for such nuts, at prices ranging from thirty to seventy-five cents per pound, if sent to market in their fresh, half-ripened husk; but later on, when the nuts have fallen out and become thoroughly ripened, as when imported, ten cents a pound may be considered an average price for the larger varieties. Several of these are shown in Fig. 41, of natural size and form. Another extra-large hazel is shown in Fig. 42. The fifth year after planting, my specimen filbert orchard had suffered so much from blight that it appeared as shown in Fig. 43; but a few dozen trees have been reserved, the rest being removed and reduced to ashes.

[FIG. 43]. FILBERT ORCHARD STRUCK WITH BLIGHT, FIFTH YEAR FROM SEED.

Name and Nature of the Filbert Blight.—The reader must not suppose that one who has spent as much time and money as the writer in experimenting with these nuts, would make no effort to discover the origin and name of such a virulent disease, and means of destroying it if these were known. For many years I had been well aware of its presence in nearly all of the nurseries of the older States, as well as in the public parks and private gardens. In the meantime I had diligently examined the reports of the Division of Vegetable Pathology of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, as well as the hundreds of bulletins of the various State experiment stations, treating of the fungous diseases of plants, all without finding a hint or reference to this widely distributed and destructive blight of the filbert. I also sent many specimens of the diseased twigs and branches to professional mycologists, with no better results. With the nature of the disease, its mode of multiplication and distribution, I had become somewhat familiar, but the information sought was: Had it ever been described and given a scientific name, and if so, where, and by whom? This much of its history had somehow escaped me, and, as it would appear from the following correspondence, the chances were none too good of finding it.

In reply to an inquiry directed to the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Division of Vegetable Pathology, I received the following:

Washington, D. C., Aug. 4, 1894.

Dear Sir:

Your letter of Aug. 2, relating to the disease of the filbert, is at hand. In reply I have to say that we have not investigated this trouble, and are therefore unable to furnish you with any definite information upon it. Specimens of the disease, as you describe it, have never been, so far as I know, referred to the Division, nor am I able to find any record of any such disease in foreign or domestic literature. If you will send us specimens we shall be pleased to examine them and furnish you a report. We should also be pleased to have any information from you in regard to the manner in which the disease works. Very truly,

B. T. GALLOWAY, Chief of Division.

The specimens requested were forwarded promptly by mail, and in the absence of the Chief of Division, they fell into the hands of one of his assistants, who reported as follows:

Washington, D. C., Aug. 14, 1894.

Dear Sir:

Your letter of Aug. 7 is received, together with the specimens. The stems of the Corylus are affected with one of the Pyrenomycetes. Cryptospora anomala, Pk. The fungus is described in "North American Pyrenomycetes," by Ellis and Everhart, p. 531. It attacks Corylus Americana, but appears to be worst on the European varieties, as you say. The pustules appear first on the young branches, and later on the older ones and on the trunk. The roots are not killed.

The only remedy known is to cut out and burn the diseased stems. Whether Bordeaux mixture or any other copper solution will protect the shrub from attack, is not known. So far as I know, it has not been tried. It is probable, however, that if the stems were thoroughly sprayed with the Bordeaux mixture they would be protected from attack. The mycelium of the fungus grows into the cambium and practically girdles the stems. The black pustules contain the spores.

Very truly yours,
ALBERT F. WOODS, Acting Chief.

On the receipt of this note of Prof. Woods, I looked up Ellis and Everhart's work, a voluminous one of over 800 octavo pages, published by the authors at Newfield, N. J. This filbert blight is briefly described under the scientific name of Cryptospora anomala, Pk., but Prof. Peck writes me that "the description was made from specimens discovered near Albany, N. Y., in May, 1874. In 1882 this description was republished by Saccardo, in his "Syllage Fungorum," Vol. I, p. 470, under the name of Cryptosporella anomala. The original name in Report 28, p. 72, was Diatrype anomala. In 1892 Ellis and Everhart, in "Pyrenomycetes of North America," p. 531, changed the name again, making it Cryptospora anomala." So at present we have the names of this fungus in the following order:

Diatrypes anomal, Peck, 1876.
Cryptosporella anomala, Sacc., 1882.
Cryptospora anomala, E. and E., 1892.

Ellis and Everhart, after giving scientific description, add,

"On living stems of Corylus Americana, Albany, N. Y. (Peck), Iowa (Holoway), on Corylus Avellana, Newfield, N. J. The pustules appear first on the smaller branches, and are serrately arranged along one side of the branch; afterwards they appear also on the larger branches and on the trunk itself, and in the course of two or three years the part of tree above ground is entirely killed. The roots, however, still retain their vitality, and continue to send up each year a luxuriant growth of new shoots, destined to be destroyed the succeeding year by the inexorable pest. The imported trees seem to be more injuriously affected than the native species."

The observations of Ellis and Everhart and Prof. Woods accord with my own, but I may say that the infested branches often show the presence of the mycelium in the bark and alburnum,—by a slight shrinking,— weeks or months before the pustules appear, for these are merely indications of the last stage in the life of the fungus, and with the throwing off the spores from these pustules the old parasite perishes.

The pustules, when fully open, are from one-sixteenth to one-eighth of an inch in diameter, usually round, but sometimes slightly oval in form, and placed mainly in almost straight rows lengthways of the branch, as shown in Fig. 44. These pustules appear on wood of all ages, from two years upward, and in what may be termed patches, ranging from a few inches to a foot or more in length, and more frequently on the upper side than the underside of the branches.

[FIG. 44]. HAZEL FUNGUS.

This fungus is undoubtedly indigenous, and its host plant is the common American hazel (C. Americana). From a very careful search, I have not been able to find any clump of these bushes of any considerable size that was entirely free from pustulous stems. But on these wild plants it seems to do but little harm, for if a stem is killed, another soon springs up from the roots to take its place; but when this fungus invades our orchards and gardens and attacks filbert trees, we recognize it as an implacable enemy. How far the spores of this fungus are likely to be carried by the wind, transported on the clothes of a person, or the hair of domestic animals, I do not know, but it certainly is not safe to plant the susceptible species and varieties within a mile of the wild hazel bushes, unless the planter is prepared to use fungicides freely on his trees. There are certain phases of this filbert blight that are rather obscure and scarcely explainable; as, for instance, its virulence among some species and varieties, and almost if not total absence among others. So far as my observation extends, I have never found it attacking the native beaked hazel (Corylus rostrata), and my correspondents in the Northwest and in the Pacific States assure me that no blight on the hazel has, as yet, been found there, and its absence is probably due to the fact that the common hazel (C. Americana) is not an inhabitant of these regions.

In a neighbor's garden just across the highway from my own, there are, at this time, four old European hazelnut trees, fully twenty feet high and as many years old. They are of two varieties: one a small round nut, the other a long, slender nut, but neither of much value, because of their small size. The trees, however, are perfectly healthy, never having suffered from the blight, although these four are all that remain of a long row of choice European varieties all planted at the same time. Blight destroyed the better varieties, while these inferior ones continue to thrive and are exceedingly productive.

This native fungus that causes blight in the hazels is but one of a large number of similar maladies which have appeared and often worsted the horticulturist, in his endeavor to introduce and cultivate foreign species and varieties of plants, and like the tropical fevers, they may pass unnoticed among the natives, but are terribly fatal to immigrants from cooler climates. The disease so well known as the black knot (Otthia morbosa, Schu.), and widely destructive to the European varieties of the plum, and Morello cherries, has existed for ages among our native plums and black cherries, doing comparatively little harm; but it seems to protest, by its virulence, against the introduction of some foreign species. The same is true with various blights and rusts which attack the exotic pear, apple, quince, peach, and other of the larger fruits, and we have only to ascend the scale a few degrees from the microscopic fungi to the microscopic insects, to meet on the very threshold of this realm the minute but unconquerable grape louse (Phylloxera vastatrix), which for more than two centuries has prevented the successful cultivation of the European varieties of the grape in the open air everywhere east of the Rocky mountains in North America; although this minute insect has ever been present and a constant parasite of the indigenous species of the grape, but scarcely affecting the health of its host. The plum curculio, chestnut and hickory weevils, bean weevil, and many other similar species of insects appear to be ever protesting against the introduction of exotic plants, as well as the improvement of our indigenous kinds.

It is this blight, and nothing else, that has prevented the extensive cultivation of the improved varieties of the European filbert and hazelnut in this country, and not the uncongenial soil and climate, as has been so often "officially" proclaimed by men whose theories are far greater than their practical knowledge of such subjects. Men whose experience with these nuts has been limited to a few isolated bushes or trees in gardens or nurseries, where they were protected, or beyond the reach of the spores of the blight fungus, as has already been noted in the experience of Prince, Downing, Barry, and my neighbor Butler, of Brooklyn, could scarcely understand why others should remain so indifferent to such a promising industry, or why the demand for the trees remained so limited, with scarcely an attempt to plant filbert orchards anywhere in this country. Nurserymen have continued to offer the choice varieties at low prices per plant, and to advise their customers to cultivate filberts extensively, even to setting them in hedgerows; and yet home-grown filberts remain as rare in our markets as they were a hundred years ago, and all due to the simple reason that the insidious filbert blight still scatters its spores unrestrained.

With the present almost universal employment of various fungicides for the destruction of blights, mildews and rusts on cultivated fruits and vegetables, we may confidently assert that the diseases of the filbert may be readily controlled by the same means. The spraying of the trees with Bordeaux mixture and other copper solutions will certainly destroy the fungus spores, and with these out of the way filbert culture may become of as much importance and as popular here as it is in certain countries of Europe. In my own experience I have found no other nut tree (barring always the blight) that has been more satisfactory. The plants come forward rapidly, fruiting freely and abundantly when young, and if properly trained, the crop can be gathered with little labor, and as it is ready for use a month or more in advance of the arrival of fresh nuts from abroad, the home market during the time is at our command.

The number of applications of the fungicides that will be necessary during the season to rid the trees of blight, or the strength of the copper solution used, will depend somewhat upon circumstances and the condition of the subjects operated upon. If the trees are growing near hedges of wild hazels, where there is a constant or annual influx of the fungus spores, then greater care will be required to suppress them than if the trees are some distance from such sources of contagion; and it may be well for those contemplating planting filbert orchards, to examine their surroundings carefully in advance, in order to avoid local blight-breeding plants, and have these destroyed if any are found. I would also warn the cultivator against collecting branches of the wild hazel in the spring, carrying pollen-bearing catkins to be employed in fertilizing the pistillate flowers of the cultivated varieties, for by such means blight spores may be readily introduced into orchard and garden.

It will seldom be necessary to practice artificial fertilization, where any considerable number of trees are grown near together, because if ninety per cent. of the male catkins are winterkilled, the few remaining will be sufficient to supply pollen for the pistillate flowers. In my grounds filberts have never failed to produce annual crops after reaching a bearing age, although they have been subjected to great extremes of temperature in winter. One year the trees were in full bloom the last week in February, and although cold weather followed, the protected pistillate flowers were not injured. The winters of 1894 and 1895 were among the severest, in the way of continuous low temperature, I have ever experienced here, and while the filberts did not bloom until the first week in April, the crop proved to be abundant.

Insects Injurious to Filberts.—My personal observations lead me to believe that the filberts and hazels are, in this country, remarkably free from the depredations of noxious insects. Two species of nut weevils have been reported as breeding in the wild hazelnuts, viz., Balaninus obtusus, and B. nasicus, but among the many bushels of the European varieties of the filbert produced in my grounds I have never found one infested by a weevil or other insect. In Europe a nut weevil (B. nucum) is said to be very destructive to the wild hazel, often invading the filbert orchards, and this we can readily believe, because they are not at all uncommon in the imported nuts, but fortunately have not, as yet, become naturalized in this country.

The great hazel-leaf beetle, or as more generally known, elm-leaf beetle (Monocesta coryli), has been known in a few instances to attack and defoliate large patches of the wild hazel bushes, but this insect seems to prefer the elm, hence is rarely found on the hazels. But should it ever invade our filbert orchards, it can be readily destroyed by dusting or spraying the trees with Paris green, London purple, or other well-known insecticides. There may be an occasional invasion of caterpillars, like the tent worms, spanworms, leaf rollers of various species, and what are called leaf miners, but as these infest almost all kinds of deciduous trees and shrubs, we cannot consider them specially injurious to the filberts and hazels.

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CHAPTER VII.

HICKORY NUTS.

Hicoria, Rafinesque. Name probably derived from the aboriginal or Indian word hickery, or hickory, the common name for these nuts among the tribes formerly inhabiting the Middle and Southern Atlantic States.

Order, Juglandaceæ (Walnut family).—Native deciduous trees of large size, with compound serrate leaves with an odd number of leaflets, varying from five to fifteen in the different species, the three terminal ones usually much the largest, the lower ones on opposite sides of the rather stout leafstalk. Male catkins slender, cylindrical, pendulous, two to six inches long, three in a cluster, on a naked peduncle or stalk (Fig. 46) springing from the base of the terminal buds of the previous season's twigs, and just below the first set of new leaves in spring; calyx unequally three-parted; stamens three to eight. Female flowers two or more in a cluster, from the end of the new growth of the season, which becomes the common peduncle or fruit-stalk of a single nut or cluster of nuts. The flowers are destitute of petals; stigma short, broad, and four-lobed; husk fleshy or leathery, smooth, very thick in some species and thin in others, partly or wholly four-lobed, opening in some, allowing the nut to drop out at maturity, in others adhering, falling off entire when ripe. Nuts with hard, bone-like shell, round or oblong, smooth or deeply four to six angled, somewhat flattened or compressed in most of the species; kernel two-lobed, oily, sweet and delicious, as in the common shellbark hickory, or extremely bitter, as in the bitter nut.

History.—The early white settlers of the Atlantic States found the hickory nut in common use among the Indians, who gathered and stored them in large quantities in the fall, for food during the winter months, and while our ancestors who sought to make homes in the western wilderness may have appreciated these luxuries, they needed land for cultivation, and to secure it the forests were destroyed, with no thought of preserving trees that would yield food for themselves or succeeding generations. Not only were the forests cleared away, as things to be banished from sight and mind, but as the hickories yielded superior timber for various agricultural and other implements, as well as for fuel, they were often sought for and utilized in advance of the general clearing of wood lands, and the first to feel the woodman's axe.

William Bartram, in the account of his travels through the Southern Atlantic States, from 1773 to 1778, and published in Philadelphia in 1791, says, in referring to these nuts, that they are held "in great estimation with the present generation of Indians, particularly Juglans exaltata, commonly called shellbarked hickory; the Creeks store up the latter in their towns. I have seen above an hundred bushels of these nuts belonging to one family. They pound them to pieces, and then cast them into boiling water, which, after passing through fine strainers, preserves the most oily part of the liquid; this they call by a name which signifies 'hickory milk;' it is as sweet and rich as fresh cream, and is an ingredient in most of their cookery, especially in hominy and corn cakes."

We can readily imagine what a delicious liquid hickory milk must be in which to cook hominy, rice, and similar kinds of grain; and there would be no danger from tuberculosis in this natural product of the vegetable kingdom. Perhaps at some future day, when milch cows are as rare in this country as they have been for ages in China and Japan, hickory milk will come into vogue again and be more highly valued by our people than it ever was by the aborigines.

While we have no romantic tales to repeat in which either hickory trees or the nuts have played an important part, yet we can well imagine that such delicious food must, in ages past, as well as in our own times, have been a coveted luxury, enjoyed at many a social gathering of friends and neighbors. Many a country boy and girl has welcomed the early autumn frosts, because they announced the opening of the nutting season, reminding them of the long winter evenings near at hand, and that the industrious and nimble squirrel was a sharp competitor in the nutting field; consequently, no time could be wasted if a store of such luxuries was to be gathered for home use, or to be sent to city or village market for the benefit of less fortunate consumers. It is to be hoped that this source of pleasure and profit may continue long after the original forests of our country have disappeared, and through the preservation and planting of the noble food-bearing hickories by the roadsides, in orchards, also for shelter, shade and ornament. Valuable as hickory timber and hickory nuts have always been to the inhabitants of this country, we might reasonably suppose that there would be many thousands of these trees planted every year, in order to keep up a supply and make good the annual loss sustained in the destruction constantly going on in our forests. But no such plantings appear to have been undertaken in our Northern States, and only quite recently in the Southern, where the pecan nut is attracting considerable attention, on account of the increase in demand, and the advance in price obtained for them in the markets. Furthermore, with the many millions of dollars expended by the general government to encourage the planting, preservation and cultivation of forest trees, no special encouragement has been extended to the nut-bearing kinds, and the man who plants a cottonwood or worthless willow is given as much credit as though he planted and reared a tree a thousand times more valuable to himself and the country at large.

This may not be a very creditable phase of nut culture in the United States, but it is history, nevertheless, and to attempt to suppress it would merely be encouraging negligence, which has already become so general that the inferior varieties of hickory nuts command a much higher price in our markets than the very choicest did a few years ago.

The nomenclature of the walnut family has been subjected to various revisions by botanists, during the present century, and there are probably others yet to follow in the near or distant future. In all other standard botanical works published prior to 1817-1818, the hickories were classed with the butternut, black walnut and Persian walnut, and under the generic name of Juglans. But in the year 1818 Mr. Thomas Nuttall, an eminent English botanist, who had given years to wandering through our forests and studying American plants, separated the hickories from the older genus of Juglans, placing them in a new one, to which he gave the name of Carya, from an ancient Greek name of the walnut tree. This classification of Nuttall's was immediately adopted by the botanists of his time, and has been observed, scarcely without question, by the authors of all the numerous botanical works published in America and Europe during the past seventy-five years. But now we are informed by some of our noted botanists that, in deference to the law of priority dominant in matters scientific, Nuttall's name for this genus must be abandoned, inasmuch as Mr. C. S. Rafinesque, an erratic Frenchman possessing considerable ability for botanical research, and who came to this country several years before Nuttall,—as some recent investigations appear to prove,—defined the distinct characteristics of the hickories, and not only proposed, but published the name Hicoria for this genus in 1817, while Nuttall's Carya did not appear until one year later, viz.: 1818. For these dates I am mainly indebted to Dr. N. L. Britton, who appears to have been delving among "first editions" of the works of the authors named (Bulletin, Torrey Botanical Club, 1888).

It seems strange, however, at this late date, that such eminent botanists as the late Dr. John Torrey and Dr. Asa Gray, who were both intimately acquainted with, in fact associates of, Rafinesque, should have ignored his rights in regard to the name of Hicoria, if he was really entitled to the honor of founding this genus and separating the hickories from the Juglans. But for some good reason they left the matter in abeyance, for their successors to settle. Dr. Torrey does, in a way, recognize Rafinesque, in his "Catalogue of Plants Within Thirty Miles of the City of New York," published in 1819, but in a manner which shows that he had no confidence in Rafinesque's claim, but did approve of Nuttall's classifications and name of Carya, for on page 74 he refers to the hickories as follows: "Carya, Nuttall; Hickoria, Rafinesque."

From this it appears that Dr. Torrey did not adopt Hicoria as the proper mode of spelling this word, but retained the letter k in giving it a Latin form. This is not strange, inasmuch as Rafinesque had no settled form of his own, and varied the spelling at different times; as, for instance, Scoria, Hicoria, Hickorius and Hicorius. It is but reasonable to suppose that Dr. Torrey was familiar with Rafinesque's earlier writings, and also whether his proposed generic name of Scoria, in 1808, was legitimate, or a misspelling of Hicoria, as suggested by Dr. Britton. But of one thing we may rest assured, and that is, Dr. Torrey would not knowingly detract from, nor fail to give every man full credit for his labors in any branch of natural history or elsewhere, and he certainly must have known Rafinesque in all his eccentricities and moods, for when in New York city he was usually the guest of Dr. Torrey, and these relations continued for many years.

A few of our leading botanists, having recently decided that Rafinesque's name of Hicoria must be restored, in deference to the laws of priority, and Nuttall's Carya be relegated to the position of a synonym, I have concluded to adopt it in this work, although I am well aware that a large majority of our botanists have protested against this change, probably because of the confusion it is likely to cause in the botanical literature of our times. My own reason for adopting Hicoria is not so much from any special reverence to the laws of priority, but because it is derived from an old American Indian name, and for all such I have a profound regard, and would retain and adopt them whenever and wherever they are at all appropriate to products indigenous to this country. The hickories being purely American, and unknown to Greece or Greeks, a semi-native name is all the more acceptable. It is not to be expected that botanical quibbles are of any special interest to the practical nut culturist, for a pecan or a shellbark hickory will taste just as sweet and command as high a price in market under one scientific name as another; but the cultivator may have occasion to look up the botanical name of his trees in some school botany, or other botanical work, and fail to find it, in the absence of some guide to the various changes that have been made in the name of the genus, as well as in the name of the synonyms of the different species. Then, again, propagators and dealers in trees are prone to employ unfamiliar names, whether they are old or new, this adding to the confusion, without benefit to either purchaser or cultivator.

To assist those who may have occasion to consult these pages for either the common or botanical names of the different species of the hickory, I shall endeavor to give the greater part of those compiled by Prof. C. S. Sargent (Tenth Census), Dr. Britton, and other eminent authorities whose works I have had occasion to consult in writing this treatise. It is not certain, however, that these revisions and readjustments of the scientific names of this genus of trees will remain undisturbed for any considerable number of years, for we have "many men of many minds" at work in the line of botanical research, and it can scarcely be expected that all will reach the same conclusion, either in fact or fancy; besides, it is often difficult, if not wholly impossible, to determine a species from the description given by the earlier botanists, for they are generally very brief and vague, and will often apply equally well to two or more species of the same genus. In some instances not a word is given in the way of description, merely a name, as in "Bartram's Travels" (1791), where he speaks of Juglans exaltata, a tall-growing hickory found in the region through which he was traveling, and we now know that it may have been any one of two or three species indigenous to the Southern States.

Under such confusing circumstances I shall make no claim of infallibility in applying names to species, but attempt no more than my predecessors have in the same direction, and my contemporaries are now attempting, i. e., make as close a guess as possible as to the species or variety of hickory which the earlier authors intended to name and briefly describe. The date of publication of some of the earlier works consulted are given, as an earnest of my desire to assent to the law of priority in such matters.

[FIG. 45]. FOURTEEN YEARS OLD PECAN TREE IN MISSISSIPPI.

Pecan nut, Illinois nut (Hicoria Pecan. Marshall).—Leaves with thirteen to fifteen leaflets, oblong-lanceolate, serrate, pointed; nuts mostly oblong, smooth; husk thin, somewhat four-angled and four-valved, these at maturity shrinking, and falling apart when dropping to the ground. Shell of nut generally thin, smooth or slightly corrugated, varying widely in both form and size from less than one inch in length to nearly or quite two inches, abruptly blunt, or long and sharp pointed; the two-lobed cotyledon or kernel oily, sweet and delicious. A large, tall, but usually slender tree, with smooth or slightly furrowed bark, as seen in Fig. 45. Mainly indigenous to river bottoms in the Southern and Southwestern States, extending northward to Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and Southern Iowa.

Synonyms and their authors:

Juglans Pecan, Marshall, Arboretum Americanum, 1785.
Juglans Pecan, Walter, 1787.
Juglans olivæformis, Willdenow, 1809.
Carya olivæformis, Nuttall, 1818.
Juglans Illinoiensis, Wangenheim, 1787.
Juglans angustifolia, Aiton, Hortus Kewensis.
Juglans rubra, Gærtner.
Juglans cylindrica, Lamarck.

Shellbark or shagbark hickory (Hicoria alba. Clayton).—Leaflets mostly five, occasionally seven, the three upper ones obovate-lanceolate, the lower pair much smaller and oblong-lanceolate, as shown in Fig. 46, all taper-pointed, finely serrate, and slightly downy underneath. Terminal buds large and scaly. Fruit globose, somewhat depressed; husk smooth, very thick, firm, scarcely shrinking at maturity, but opening and falling with the nuts when ripe. Nuts variable in size, mainly thin-shelled, white, compressed or flattened, four-angled, with deep corrugations, blunt, rarely sharp-pointed; kernel large, sweet and excellent. One of the most common and popular of the indigenous edible nuts, collected in large quantities as they ripen in autumn, for home use and for sale, as the demand for this excellent nut is almost unlimited. A large tree, fifty to eighty feet high, and stem one to three feet in diameter, with a shaggy or scaly bark, which on old trees may be readily pulled off in long, shell-like plates. Timber well known as valuable for many purposes. This species has a very wide range, of from Maine to Florida in the Eastern States, and westward to Minnesota, thence southward through eastern Kansas, Missouri, Indian Territory and eastern Texas.

Synonyms:

Juglans alba, Clayton, Flora Virginica, 1739.
Juglans alba ovata, Miller, Gard. Dict., 1754.
Juglans alba, Linn., Spec. pl., 1754.
Juglans alba ovata, Marshall, 1785.
Juglans compressa (?), Willdenow, 1809.
Juglans exaltata (?), Bartram, 1791.
Juglans alba, Nuttall, 1818.
Juglans var. microcarpa, Nuttall.
Juglans squamosa (?), Lamarck.
Juglans ovalis (?), Wangenheim.

Although Clayton, as with most of the earlier botanists, fails to give any description of the foliage of the hickories he mentions, and all have the affix alba (white), yet his reference to the form of the nut and the scaly bark of the tree is sufficient to enable us to identify the species as that of our common shellbark hickory of the Atlantic States, which extends through the regions where he gathered his botanical specimens.

[FIG. 46]. LEAF AND STERILE CATKINS OF SHELLBARK HICKORY.

[FIG. 47]. WESTERN SHELLBARK.

Big shellbark, thick or Western shellbark, etc. (Hicoria laciniosa. Michaux).—Leaflets seven to nine, obovate-oblong, finely serrate, roughish-downy or pubescent beneath. Buds large, composed of rather loose grayish scales; the young twigs stout, with a gray bark, most noticeable in winter. Fruit large, oval to oblong, usually four-ribbed above the middle, with depressions between; husk thick, somewhat spongy, shrinking at maturity, and splitting open from top downward. Nut large, with prominent ridges, and strongly pointed, but slightly compressed at the sides, as seen in Fig. 47; shell thick and of a dull yellowish color; kernel moderately large, as shown across section of nut in Fig. 48, but much smaller in proportion to the size of the nut than in the two preceding species, but it is sweet, well flavored, and easily removed from the shell when cracked. The very large size of these nuts makes them a favorite, especially where the pecan and the true shellbarks are not plentiful. These nuts were formerly known as the Springfield or Gloucester nut. A very large tree, sixty to eighty feet high, and two to four feet in diameter, with thick, scaly bark, the scales somewhat thicker than in the common shellbark hickory of the Atlantic States. A rare tree, except in the valleys west of the Alleghanies, although it is reported to have been found in Chester county, Pennsylvania, and thence west to southern Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, eastern Kansas, and the Indian Territory. Plentiful in the bottom lands along the Ohio, Mississippi and lower Missouri. Elliott, in "Botany of South Carolina and Georgia" (1824), says it is rare in the low country of Carolina, but he does not say that it is found plentiful anywhere in the South. That he was sometimes in doubt in regard to the identification of this and other species may be inferred from his remark, namely: "The greater part of our hickories resemble each other so closely in their leaves and vary so much in their fruit that it is very difficult to discriminate the species."

[FIG. 48]. SECTION WESTERN SHELLBARK.

It is this difficulty of identification which has led to so much confusion in the application of the specific names, for the earlier botanists rarely had an opportunity of a close and careful examination of the trees or other plants which they attempted to describe. In relation to the species under consideration, we find that the specific name of sulcata, so long in use, was adopted by Nuttall, from some earlier or contemporaneous author,—a system he followed with all the different species of the hickory, but without, in some instances, any discrimination or regard to their adaptation or validity. If there was anything to show that Willdenow (1796) had this Western shellbark in mind, or that he or his correspondents in this country had ever seen or collected it, then we might adopt the name of sulcata as the original and true one; but in the absence of such information, with a full and accurate description of the species and its habitats by Michaux, under the name of laciniosa, I think, in common justice to one of the most eminent dendrologists who ever visited this country, the name given should stand as the true one for this species. See Michaux, "North American Sylva," Vol. I, p. 128.

Synonyms:

Juglans sulcata (?), Willdenow, 1796.
Juglans laciniosa, Michaux, 1810.
Carya sulcata, Nuttall, 1818.
Carya cordiformis, Koch, Dendrologie.

The three preceding species are probably the only ones worthy of propagation for their fruit, or that have and are likely to yield varieties of any considerable economic value; but as it is important that the nut culturist should know the materials he is using, and whether they be of the best or otherwise, I shall admit all the species, without regard to their merits or value for cultivation.

Mocker nut, bull nut, big-bud hickory, king nut, white-heart hickory, etc. (Hicoria tomentosa. Michaux).—Leaflets mostly seven, occasionally nine, large, oblong-obovate, rather long pointed, slightly serrate, smooth on both sides while young, becoming roughish downy underneath when fully developed in summer; leaf-stalks and catkins also somewhat downy. Fruit medium to very large, round or ovoid, with a very thick woody husk, which splits nearly or quite down to the base, but usually falling with the enclosed nut entire, or bursting open as they strike the ground. Nut very thick shelled, smooth, or strongly four to six angled, white at first, but becoming a dull brown when exposed to the light. The kernel is sweet, but so small and firmly imbedded in the thick shell that it is only to be removed in minute sections, but this is successfully accomplished by the squirrels, who often throw down the entire crop from large trees before the shells harden, and then pack them away in the ground, in old logs, and under the leaves, where they will not dry for some weeks or months later. An exceedingly variable species, especially in the size and form of the nuts; on some trees they are scarcely an inch in diameter, while on others they are nearly or quite two inches, but always with such a thick, hard shell as to be nearly worthless for their meats. The largest of these nuts I have ever seen grow in central and western New York, where they are called "King" or "Bull" nuts.

[FIG. 49]. LEAF OF PIGNUT.

The trees grow to a very large size, or from sixty to eighty feet high, and two to three feet in diameter, with a thick, deeply furrowed bark, not scaly. The wood is white, heavy, tough, and nearly as valuable as the common shellbark hickory. The terminal buds, and especially those on the young seedlings and suckers springing up in clearings, are very large, round, short, and covered with brownish scales, hence one of the local names of big-bud hickory.

A widely distributed species, or from the valley of the St. Lawrence to Florida, and along the great lakes to Nebraska, and thence southward to Texas. Unlike most of the other hickories, this species seems to prefer thin soils, rocky sandstone ridges, and here in New Jersey almost disappearing in the rich bottom lands along our creeks and rivers; at least, this is its habit here in the northern part of the State.

Synonyms:

Juglans alba (?), Linn., 1754.
Juglans tomentosa, Michaux, 1810.
Carya tomentosa, Nuttall, 1818.
Carya tomentosa var. maxima, Nuttall.
Carya alba, Koch, Dendrologie.

Pignut, hognut, brown hickory, black hickory, switch-bud hickory (Hicoria glabra. Miller).—Leaflets five to seven, mostly seven (Fig. 49), ovate-lanceolate, serrate, smooth; fruit pear-shaped or roundish-obovate; husk very thin, splitting about half way down into four sections or valves, these usually remaining attached to the nut for some time after falling, in fact, may often be found within the husk all through the winter; shell of nut moderately thin but tough, with a small, bitterish-sweet kernel. A large, rather slender tree in similar and same localities as the last, with a close bark but not so deeply furrowed as in the mocker nut (H. tomentosa). Of no special value except as a timber tree, and its slow growth makes it less deserving of attention than those species that bear large and edible nuts.

Synonyms:

Juglans glabra, Miller, 1768.
Juglans alba acuminata, Marshall, 1785.
Juglans obcordata, Lamarck.
Juglans porcina, Michaux.
Juglans pyriformis, Muhlenberg.
Juglans porcina, var. obcordata, Pursh.
Juglans porcina, var. pyriformis, Pursh.
Carya porcina, Nuttall.
Carya glabra, Torrey.
Carya amara, var. porcina, Darby.

[FIG. 50]. BITTERNUT.

[FIG. 51]. BITTERNUT.

Bitternut, swamp hickory, pignut (Hicoria minima. Marshall).—Leaflets seven to eleven, oblong-lanceolate, serrate, smooth and thin; fruit globular, with distinct ridges at the seams (Fig. 50); the husk very thin, and at maturity splitting about halfway to the base, the four divisions becoming reflexed in maturing, but not separating and falling apart as in the thicker-husk species. Nut broadest at the top, sharp-pointed, obcordata (Fig. 51), slightly depressed; shell very thin, smooth, white; kernel intensely bitter when fully ripe, but greedily eaten by squirrels when fresh or in a half milky state. Usually a medium-sized, graceful tree, with smooth bark, slender twigs, and small, oblong buds covered with a dense yellow pubescence in winter. It grows in moist soils, along streams and borders of swamps, and near springs on hill-sides, from Maine to Florida, and westward to Minnesota, Nebraska and Kansas. Humphrey Marshall described this species so accurately in his "American Grove," under the name of Juglans minima, p. 68, that there is no good reason to doubt its identity, nor question the validity of this name, which should remain as the true and original one, and all others of later date be placed among the synonyms.

Synonyms:

Juglans (alba) minima, Marshall, 1785.
Juglans cordiformis, Wangenheim, 1787.
Juglans angustifolia, Lamarck, 1791.
Juglans amara, Michaux, 1810.
Hickorius amarus, Rafinesque, 1817.
Carya amara, Nuttall, 1818.

Nutmeg hickory (Hicoria myristicæformis. Michaux).—Leaflets five to seven, ovate-lanceolate, pointed, quite smooth on both sides, the terminal leaflet sessile, not stalked; fruit oval; husk wrinkled and rough, thick; nut small, oval, short-pointed; the shell furrowed and very hard, and of a brownish color marked with white lines. Michaux says: "The shell is so thick that it constitutes two-thirds of the volume of the nut, which, consequently, is extremely hard, and has a minute kernel. It is inferior to the pignut."

A medium-size tree with slender branches, found in a few localities in South Carolina, near swamps and borders of streams, and westward to Arkansas, where it reaches its greatest development. This hickory has been so rarely seen by botanists that Michaux's specific name, given it more than eighty years ago, has fared a better fate than those of our more common and abundant species; consequently, I have only one synonym to record, viz.: Carya amara, var. myristicæformis, Cooper, in Smithsonian Report, 1858.

[FIG. 52]. LARGE, LONG PECAN NUT.

Water hickory, swamp hickory, bitter pecan (Hicoria aquatica. Michaux).—Leaflets nine to thirteen, generally eleven, narrow and obliquely lanceolate-pointed, slightly serrate, thin and smooth; fruit globular or somewhat egg-shaped, four-ribbed; husk thin, dividing at maturity down to the base; nut thin-shelled, four-angled; kernel much wrinkled and very bitter. This is closely allied to if not a more Southern form of our common bitternut. A small tree in swamps and river bottoms from North Carolina south to Florida, and west to Texas.

[FIG. 53]. OVAL PECAN NUT.

Synonyms:

Juglans aquatica, Michaux.
Hicorius integrifolia, Rafinesque.
Carya aquatica, Nuttall.
Carya integrifolia, Sprengel.

Varieties of the Hickories.—Every one who has ever had occasion to gather or examine hickory nuts in the forest, or has seen them in market, must be aware of the fact that there is an almost endless variety of each and all the different species. But as it is only the varieties of the pecan and thick- and thin-shelled shagbark hickories that are likely to be of any economic value to the nut culturist, all others will be omitted. Of the first or pecan nut the natural varieties are not only exceedingly numerous, but vary widely in size, form, thickness of shell, and productiveness of the individual trees. In some the nuts are produced singly or in pairs, and from this number up to clusters of seven or eight; these large-clustered and extra-prolific varieties are most worthy of special attention, especially when the nuts are of good size and thin-shelled, as in the large, long pecan (Fig. 52). From this size they vary, as shown in Figs. 53, 54, 55. Some of the wild varieties have received local names, and a very few propagated by grafting, which is probably the most practical means known of multiplying them, and at the same time preserving their varietal characteristics. Choice and extra fine ones are constantly being discovered and brought to notice, and doubtless many more will follow as the old fields and forests of the South and West are explored; besides, there are many thousands of seedling trees now under cultivation, and from these we may expect some marked variations from the original or wild forms. In Bulletin 105, of the North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station for 1894, and in Report of Assistant Pomologist of U. S. Department of Agriculture for same year, we find the following-named varieties of pecans:

[FIG. 54]. SMALL OVAL.

Alba.—Size below medium, cylindrical, with pointed apex; cracking qualities good; shell of medium thickness; corky shell lining thick, adhering to the kernel; kernel plump, light colored; quality good.

Biloxi (W. R. Stuart, Ocean Springs, Miss.).—Medium size, cylindrical, pointed at each end; surface quite regular, light brown; shell thin; cracking qualities medium; kernel plump, with yellowish-brown surface; free from astringency, of good quality, and keeps well without becoming rancid. Introduced several years ago by W. R. Stuart as Mexican Paper Shell, but the name has since been changed to Biloxi.

Columbian (W. R. Stuart, Ocean Springs, Miss.).—Large, cylindrical, somewhat compressed at the middle, rounding at the base; pointed and somewhat four-sided at the crown; shell rather heavy; cracking qualities medium; quality good. In size and form this nut closely resembles Mammoth, which was introduced in 1890 by Richard Frotscher, of New Orleans, La.

Early Texan (Louis Biediger, Idlewild, Tex.).—Size above medium, short, cylindrical, with rounded base and blunt conical crown; shell quite thick, shell lining thick, astringent; cracking qualities medium; kernel not very plump, of mild, nutty flavor; quality good.

Georgia Melon.—Size above medium, short, rather blunt at apex; cracking quality medium; shell rather thick; kernel plump, brown; meat yellow, moderately tender, pleasant, good.

[FIG. 55]. LITTLE MOBILE.

Gonzales (T. V. Munson, Denison, Tex.).—Above medium size, with firm, clear shell; quality excellent. Originated in Gonzales county, Tex.

Harcourt.—Size medium, short, slightly acorn-shaped; cracking qualities medium; shell rather thick, but very smooth inside; kernel short, very plump; meat yellow, very tender, rich, very good.

Longfellow.—Size medium, oblong, cylindrical, somewhat irregular, enlarging from base to near crown, then sharply conical to the apex; cracking qualities not first-class; shell of medium thickness; kernel plump but rather thin, light-colored; meat white, sweetish, rich, good.

Primate (W. R. Stuart, Ocean Springs, Miss.)—Of medium size, slender, rather long; shell thin; quality good; ripens in September, thirty days before other nuts.

Ribera.—Size above medium, oblong ovate; cracking qualities good; shell thin; kernel plump, light brown, free from the bitter, red, corky growth which adheres to the shell; meat yellow, tender, with rich, delicate, pleasant flavor.

Faust.—A South Carolina variety of medium to large size, medium shell and good quality.

Frotscher.—A Louisiana variety of large size, very thin shell, and plump kernel of good quality.

Jewett.—From Mississippi; a large, long nut, rather irregular; shell medium; quality very good.

[FIG. 56]. STUART.

[FIG. 57]. VAN DEMAN.

Stuart.—A large, roundish, oblong nut from Mississippi (Fig. 56).

Turkey Egg.—A variety from Florida; large and thin-shelled.

Van Deman.—A large variety from Mississippi, of oblong form and thin shell (Fig. 57).

From other sources we collect other names, namely:

Idlewild.—An oval shaped nut from Idlewild, Texas. Report of U. S. Department of Agriculture, 1890.

Risien.—A very broad, thick variety, about one inch in diameter, very blunt at both ends. From San Saba, Texas (Fig. 58).

[FIG. 58]. RISIEN.

A peculiar shaped pecan nut is shown in Fig. 59, from Louisiana, sent under the name of Lady Finger.

[FIG. 59]. LADY FINGER.

From the report of the Georgia State Horticultural Society, 1893, we obtain certain local names without description, as, for instance, Turkey Egg, Mexican, Colorado, Pride of the Coast, etc. Col. W. R. Stuart, of Ocean Springs, Miss., who has been called the "father of pecan culture" in that State, and is the author of "The Pecan and How to Grow it," adds two more varieties to the above list, viz.: Beauty and Columbia; the latter, as figured in the book named, is a very large variety, tapering from a broad base to a sharp point. Judge Samuel Miller, of Bluffton, Mo., found some very large and fine varieties of the pecan in his neighborhood several years ago, on the farm of a man named Meyers, and he purchased the nuts from the tree bearing the largest in the grove and planted them, and the seedlings have since been distributed under the name of "Meyers' Pecan."

Judge Miller kindly sent me a quantity of these nuts, from which I raised some fifty or more trees, and all have thus far been uninjured by the cold of our severest winters. From my own experience in raising pecan trees, and I may add, that of some of my neighbors, those grown from nuts gathered in the more Southern States are almost invariably tender here in the North; but those raised from thoroughly acclimated trees, along the northern limits of this species, will give us a hardy race, and probably allow of extending their cultivation far north of their natural range. Those who intend to try pecan culture in the Northern States should bear this in mind, and secure nuts and cions from hardy acclimated trees.

Varieties of the Shellbark.—Of this species (H. alba) there are as many distinct natural varieties as of the pecan, and while local or neighborhood names are plentiful enough, they have not, except in a very few instances, been placed on record in agricultural reports or other publications. Three small thin-shelled varieties are named in the Report of the Pomologist of the U. S. Department of Agriculture for 1891, viz.: Milford, Shimar and Leaming, but neither has been propagated, and they are probably not worthy of it, because there are plenty of larger ones with thin shells which would be far more valuable for cultivation.

[FIG. 60]. THE ORIGINAL HALES' PAPER-SHELL HICKORY TREE.

A careful research extending over a period of a quarter of a century yields only a solitary instance of the propagation and dissemination of a variety of the shellbark hickory, and this one is Hales' Paper-shell, which I named, described and figured in the Rural New-Yorker, Nov. 19, 1870, p. 382, Vol. XXII. I am thus particular in regard to time and place, because years hence these facts may be of more importance than at the present day.

[FIG. 61]. HALES' HICKORY.

[FIG. 62]. SECTION OF HALES' HICKORY.

The original tree of this remarkable variety is growing upon the farm of Mr. Henry Hales, near Ridgewood, N. J., and on bottom land within a few rods of the Saddle river. The tree is probably more than a hundred years old, and is about seventy-five feet high, and nearly two feet in diameter at the base, and of the shape shown in Fig. 60, taken from a sketch made in the fall of 1894. There are a large number of the shellbark hickories growing near by, and while there are several excellent and very large varieties among them, the one I have named is by far the largest and most distinct in form, and with the thinnest shell; in fact, the shell is much thinner than in many of the pecan nuts that reach our Northern markets from the South. The size and form of these nuts is clearly shown in Fig. 61, while the thin shell and thick, plump kernel is seen in the cross-section, Fig. 62. It will be noticed that these nuts differ from the ordinary varieties of this species in the absence of the sharp ridges and depressions running from base to point, the surface of the shell being broken up into irregular, wavy lines, somewhat resembling the shell of the more common varieties of the Persian walnuts. I have occasionally seen very similar varieties,—but of smaller size,—among the mixed lots of hickory nuts on sale in our city markets, also oblong nuts, as shown in Fig. 63, but of course there is no way of tracing these to the trees producing them.

[FIG. 63]. LONG SHELLBARK HICKORY.

[FIG. 64]. SHELLBARK MISSOURI.

Another merit, in addition to the large size and thin shell of the Hales' Paper-shell, is its keeping qualities, the kernels rarely becoming rancid, even when two or more years old, and from a long acquaintance with this nut and hundreds of other varieties gathered from all parts of the United States, I am inclined to place it at the head of the list, and as the most valuable sort as yet discovered. It is true, however, that I have found in the forests, and also received, many very large and superior nuts of this species, that are well worthy of propagation and cultivation, but they have been, in the main, of the typical form, and not of so distinct a type as this Paper-shell. Judge Miller sent me a few nuts of a shellbark found in Missouri, that were even larger, and with fully as thin shell as that of the Hales' (Fig. 64), but upon making further inquiries in regard to the tree that produced them, I learned that an incoming railroad line had destroyed it, and thus one more tree of inestimable value had been sacrificed in the march of this progressive age.

[FIG. 65]. LONG WESTERN SHELLBARK.

Varieties of the Western Shellbark.—The typical form of the thick or Western shellbark (H. laciniosa) has already been shown on a preceding page, but some remarkable and valuable varieties have been found in the Western States, and no doubt others will be, when more attention is paid than at present to the natural food products of our forests. The tendency of this species, in its variations, is usually in the direction of an elongation of the nuts, even when there is no decrease in the thickness of the shell, as shown in Fig. 65, taken from one of a number of long varieties collected in the Western States; and while they do not possess any special merit, they attract attention, owing to their unusual form.

[FIG. 66]. FRESH NUSSBAUMER HYBRID.

Nussbaumer's Hybrid.—Several years ago I received a specimen of a very remarkable nut from Judge Samuel Miller, of Bluffton, Mo., under the name of "Nussbaumer's Hybrid Pecan." Judge Miller informed me that he had received it from Mr. J. J. Nussbaumer, Mascoutah, St. Clair Co., Ill., who claimed that it was a hybrid between the pecan and the large western shellbark hickory (H. laciniosa). I had an illustration made of this specimen, and it appeared, with a brief description, in the American Agriculturist for Dec., 1884, p. 546. Soon after receiving the specimen nut from Judge Miller I opened correspondence with Mr. Nussbaumer, and learned from him that only one tree bearing such nuts had ever been found, and this was of large size, six and a half feet in circumference, and about fifty feet high, the bark somewhat like that of the hickory but nearer the pecan. Mr. Nussbaumer sent me specimens of the green nuts with leaves and twigs, from the original tree. The nuts, however, of that season (1884), were badly infested with the "hickory-shuck worm" (Grapholitha caryana, Fitch), and these had so ruined the shucks, and even eaten into the shells of the nuts, that few of the specimens received were fully developed. But from two nuts I had a sketch made while they were fresh and of natural size, as shown in Fig. 66, the dark, irregular marks on the husks showing where the shuck worm had attacked them. One of these nuts is shown in Fig. 67, also natural size. I planted one of the nuts, from which I now have a tree about ten feet high, but although ten years old it has not fruited, and, so far as I can judge from its appearance, is a pure Western shellbark, with no indication of hybridity; but of course this does not prove that the original or parent tree is not a hybrid, as claimed by Mr. Nussbaumer, Judge Miller, and, if I am rightly informed, Prof. T. J. Burrill, of the University of Illinois.

[FIG. 67]. NUSSBAUMER'S HYBRID.

However widely opinions may differ in regard to the origin of this variety, it is certainly a most remarkable nut, and I regret that the exact location of the original tree has entirely escaped my most careful seeking; and of late years I have been unable to learn anything of Mr. Nussbaumer, further than that he had moved from Mascoutah to Okawville, Ill., the last letter received from him being dated Dec. 13, 1887. In one of his letters he said that he had raised a large number of seedlings from this supposed hybrid, and if these are still alive they would be of much scientific interest, especially if any of them showed the distinct characteristics of either of the supposed parents.

It would certainly be a pity to have such a remarkable nut lost to the world, because if propagated by grafting or by any other mode to insure perpetuating its varietal characteristics, its value could scarcely be estimated. The nuts are as thin-shelled as the common pecan, the kernel sweet and good, and in addition, the tree is a native of a northern State, and would, no doubt, prove as hardy as our common shellbark hickories.

The Floyd pecan.—This is another supposed-to-be hybrid, and of the same species of hickory as the last; but the one nut which I received differed from the Nussbaumer by being somewhat larger, and the shell with more prominent ridges and a little thicker. It was said to have been found somewhere in southern Indiana by a Mr. Floyd, who, believing it to be of great value, refused to give any information likely to aid any one else to locate the original tree, neither would he part with any of the nuts except the one specimen which eventually came into my hands. Of course all horticulturists know that seedlings raised from such freaks among nut trees are far too uncertain to be of much value, but ignorance in such matters often leads the possessor of an article slightly differing from the ordinary to permit his imagination to warp his good sense.

Cultivation of the Hickories.—The hickories have been so seldom planted in our Northern States for any purpose, that anything like a systematic cultivation of these trees is a thing almost unknown. Of course there is no good reason why the hickories should not be multiplied and cultivated as well as other kinds of trees, but in some unknown way the idea became prevalent that these trees could not be transplanted with any assurance of success, and this has been kept alive, either through ignorance or by those whose interest led them to encourage the planting of the rapid-growing and easily propagated kinds, instead of those which, though less profitable to the producer, would be of far greater value to the purchaser. It must be admitted, however, that the hickories are not so tenacious of life as the willows, poplars, elms and similar kinds of trees, requiring more care in their cultivation if they are to be transplanted when of a proper size for setting along roadsides or elsewhere, for shade and ornament, but they are certainly no more difficult to make live than the beech, oak, tulip and various species of the magnolia.

The slow growth of the hickories while young is another objection often urged as a fault of these trees, but there is nothing lost but time in waiting, and this passes just as swiftly whether we plant trees that may in ten years yield a golden harvest, or nothing but leaves; besides, the hickories respond as readily to stimulants and good care generally as the common fruit trees of our orchards. While the farmers of our Northern States are generally quite indifferent as to what becomes of their old hickory trees, and seldom attempt to preserve the wild seedlings that spring up in the fields and on the borders of forests, their fellow countrymen of the Southern States have, within the past two or three decades, discovered that they possess an inexhaustible source of wealth in their common pecan nut. Formerly these trees were sacrificed whenever a choice piece of tough timber was wanted, and often merely to secure the entire crop of nuts without waiting for nature to drop them within reach; but the advent of many lines of railroads, steamboats, and other means of communication with the great cities and their markets, has changed this inclination to destroy into one of preservation. The old pecan trees are not only appreciated as a source of income, but thousands and tens of thousands of seedlings are now annually raised and planted, to insure larger returns in the near or distant future. In fact, pecan culture has already become an important industry in several of the Southern States, although in point of age it is little more than a fledgling. We have no statistics to show what the annual crop averages in pounds or bushels, but it must be something enormous if we make our estimate from the quantities received and distributed in the Northern States. But with all the efforts put forth to secure a supply of these nuts, and the high prices they command at both wholesale and retail, the demand seems to keep well in advance of the supply, and this will, in all probability, continue as our population increases. In the way of demand, the same is true with our northern species of the shellbark hickories, which were formerly very abundant, but of late years have become rather scarce, for reasons too obvious to call for any explanation at this time.

In selecting a location for planting and cultivating the hickories, including the pecan, a moist, deep soil is certainly preferable to any other, especially for the three species and their varieties most promising for this purpose, because we find them growing wild in such situations and soils. But while these naturally deep, rich and moist soils are to be preferred, no one need hesitate to plant hickories on light, dry, and even poor soils, if they are properly enriched, or a few shovelfuls of fine old stable manure is thoroughly mixed with the earth in which the roots are set, and then a mulch applied to the surface to keep the soil moist. Almost any old waste fibrous material, such as leaves, straw, hay, weeds or coarse manure, will answer for mulching newly planted trees, and it should be applied to a depth of three or four inches, and renewed annually, or as often as necessary to prevent the growth of grass or weeds growing within three or four feet of the stem of the tree. In all dry climates and soils mulching should be considered an important operation, not to be omitted until the trees are from six to ten years old, and it may usually be continued a longer time with benefit.

Propagation.—All the species of the hickory are very readily grown from nuts gathered when ripe and planted within a few weeks; or they may be mixed with or stratified between layers of sand and light soil and buried in the open ground for the winter, and the planting deferred until the following spring. They are not at all delicate and will withstand considerable drying and neglect, and will grow, if stored in a cool cellar, without being packed in either soil, sand or other material. But as I have had no occasion to determine how much neglect these nuts will withstand, nor to what extremes of adverse conditions it is safe to subject them, I shall leave investigation in this direction to others, because in general practice no valuable seed or plant grows any too readily and freely to satisfy the cultivator, and for this reason I recommend either planting hickory nuts in the fall, or burying them between layers of light soil or sand, sifting out and planting early the following spring. If any considerable quantity is to be planted they should be dropped three or four inches apart in shallow trenches and covered about two inches deep. The distance between the rows may be from two to three feet, depending upon the implements to be used in their cultivation.

The soil for a seedbed should, of course, be made rich and deep, or the same as recommended for chestnuts, and all the means usually employed to assist the growth of cultivated plants are applicable to nut trees. I may also add that cutworms, white grubs and other noxious insects are enemies of nut-tree seedlings as well as garden vegetables. The seedling hickories should be treated as advised for chestnuts; that is, dug up when one or, at the latest, two years old, and their central or taproot shortened to at least one-half their original length, and then reset in nursery rows, and at a distance of twelve to fifteen inches apart in the row. If grown in ordinary upland, the transplanted seedlings will make a better growth if heavily mulched than under the usual system of clean cultivation, and it is usually less expensive; besides, by keeping the surface of the soil cool and moist, we encourage and assist the production of fibrous lateral roots, which, as a rule, are none too abundant on seedling hickories, no matter under what conditions or system of cultivation they are raised.

When the seedlings have grown in the nursery rows two or three years, they will probably be large enough for planting where they are to remain permanently; but if, for any reason, they are not disposed of, then they should be again transplanted,—the larger roots shortened,—and re-set in good rich soil. The object of transplanting is to insure the production of small fibrous roots, and a frequent renewal of the same, close to the main stem or stock, as long as the trees remain in the nursery, whether this be two or twenty years. This is somewhat of an expensive operation, but the value of stock thus handled is enhanced far more than the cost of such transplanting, and purchasers are, or at least should be, willing to pay a fair price for such trees.

It is the natural habit of the hickories, as well as many other kinds of deciduous trees, to produce in their earlier stages of growth rather large, deeply penetrating, naked roots, with few small fibers, and in this condition they are not so readily and successfully transplanted as the kinds possessing a more ramified root system. This, perhaps, has misled many persons to believe that certain kinds of trees, like the hickories, could not be moved at all, or at least not with any assurance of being made to live. This idea has become so prevalent among inexperienced cultivators, and, I regret to add, often reiterated by theorists, that it has discouraged many who otherwise would have raised and planted nut trees in preference to other kinds.

Admitting that it is the general habit of most kinds of forest trees to produce deeply penetrating taproots, when grown from seed, it proves nothing more than that these parts may be of some importance to the plants while they are young, and under natural conditions, yet they are not absolutely necessary, and, at most, are only temporary organs, like the tails of tadpoles, always disappearing with maturity.

Any one at all observing, and having had an opportunity of examining limited or extended areas of forest trees thrown over by hurricanes, must have noticed that no tree of any considerable size and age possessed a taproot, but had been for years kept in its upright position by lateral brace-roots, and through these it had also obtained nutriment from the surface soil. Some of my correspondents in the South have expressed their surprise at not finding any trace of the original central roots on old pecan trees, when blown over by severe wind storms. But it is the same everywhere with forest trees and where the soil is naturally loose and moist: the principal or supporting roots spread out widely and remain near the surface, and the central roots or taproots disappear much earlier than in dry soils.

In multiplying trees under artificial conditions, we remove the taproots, not only for convenience in transplanting, but also to hasten and increase the production of surface lateral roots, and more than this, we lessen the years of luxuriant sterility, securing earlier fruiting by such operations as root pruning and frequent transplanting.

Budding and Grafting.—I have never known of an instance of successful budding of the hickory, at least in the ordinary way during the summer months. What is called "annular budding" in early spring with buds of the previous season, is said to have been successfully practiced with the pecan at the South, but this mode of propagation is more of the nature of grafting than of what is usually understood as budding. But I have been unable to obtain any statistics in regard to the proportion of buds that any propagator or experimenter has made live by this or other modes of propagation. Col. Stuart says, in "The Pecan," p. 45, "There is a method known as 'annular budding,' which proves quite successful." He then proceeds to describe the operation, as given in all works on the propagation of trees and plants during the past hundred years or more, but not a word to indicate what he considers a "success,"—whether it be once or fifty times in a hundred, or if he ever succeeded in making an annular bud unite to the stock; I am more inclined to think that he never did, than otherwise.

In Bulletin No. 105, "Nut Culture for North Carolina," issued from the N. C. State Experiment Station, 1894, Mr. W. A. Taylor, Assistant Pomologist U. S. Department of Agriculture, in referring to budding and grafting of these trees, says: "These latter operations are less successful with the pecan than most fruit trees, though they are by no means impossible to accomplish. On seedlings one or two years old annular budding in early summer succeeds best." But here again we are left in doubt in regard to what the writer considers "a success." Then, again, the line between the "possible" and "impossible," in horticultural matters, is a rather difficult one to determine, and Mr. Taylor fails to cite a single instance in which either annular or any other form of either budding or grafting had been successfully practiced. The Bulletins issued from the Division of Pomology of the Department of Agriculture, give us no information whatever on this subject of propagation of the hickories, further than to repeat the old formulas of annular, splice and cleft grafting; but as to results they have always been provokingly silent.

Having been repeatedly assured, by men who presumed to know, that the pecan tree was successfully propagated in the South by grafting, and many thousands annually raised in this way, it seems strange that such plants are so rarely offered by nurserymen. Seedlings of choice varieties are, of course, abundant enough, but a man might, with as much propriety, offer seedling Bartlett pears or Baldwin apples, as pecan trees, expecting to perpetuate varieties. In corresponding with Mr. P. J. Berckmans, of the Fruitland Nurseries of Augusta, Ga., whose experience and acquaintance with the fruits of the South are, without doubt, in advance of any other horticulturist of the past or even the present generation, in reply to my request for information on grafting pecans, he writes: "For the past five or six years we have grafted various varieties of the pecan nuts. I do not know of any other nurseryman South who offers grafted trees. I presume the reason of this is, the great difficulty in having the grafts take, as we seldom have more than fifteen to twenty-five per cent. grow. We usually crown graft in February, using one-year-old seedlings grown in nursery rows. Owing to the small percentage of grafts which grow, grafted trees must, necessarily, be quite expensive, and for this reason there are so few attempts made in this method of propagation."

Mr. Berckmans makes no reference to annular budding of the pecan, so strongly and frequently recommended by the several writers already quoted, although I am certain that he is as familiar with this mode of propagation as any one else, and would have practiced it had he found it in any way superior to crown grafting. From all that I have been able to learn through a rather extended correspondence, in regard to the propagation of the pecan nut tree in the South, I conclude that they are occasionally and sparingly grafted, but with such indifferent results that they are not at all numerous in either orchards or nurseries.

From certain remarks of Col. Stuart, in his essay on "Pecan Culture," I infer that he has sold grafted trees, for he says:

"It costs no more to care for the grove of choice trees than of poor ones; then, again, the grafted or budded ones come into profitable bearing three years earlier than seedlings. Here is a case in point: Last November (1892) we paid, in cash, two hundred and forty-eight dollars for the nuts which grew upon one tree, the crop of one year. The tree is twenty inches through at its base, and forty-five feet high; such a size tree would grow in twenty or twenty-five years. Now small nuts from the same size tree will sell for not more than fifteen to twenty dollars. Another tree only ten years old bore thirteen and a half dollars worth. These choice nuts are such as we grow seedlings from; we sell a great many more seedlings than we do grafted or budded trees, simply because they are so much cheaper, and people in general do not realize that such a vast difference exists between the profits of seedling and grafted or budded trees; but such is the case, and such it will always remain for aught we can see."

Soon after I published the description of the Hales' Paper-shell hickory in 1870, requests for cions were received from nurserymen and many amateur horticulturists, who were anxious to try their skill in grafting this excellent variety. Mr. Hales generously responded, and sent cions to a large number of correspondents in various parts of the country, because he was desirous of having the variety preserved and propagated. During the following ten years the old original tree was kept pretty well pruned, in filling orders for cions; those sent to nurserymen were to be raised on shares, one-half of all the successfully grafted trees to be returned to Mr. Hales. Being a near neighbor, my opportunities for keeping informed as to the result of this arrangement was all that I could desire. To one nursery firm in central New York Mr. Hales sent about one thousand cions per annum for four successive years, and in return received just four feeble grafted plants as his share of the total product of the four thousand cions. But as the four plants received soon died, he closed that account as one of total loss. Previously, however, he had sent a quantity of cions to Mr. J. R. Trumpy, of the Kissena Nurseries, Flushing, N. Y., whose skill as a propagator of ligneous plants is probably second to that of no man in this country; the result proved that our faith in the man was not misplaced, for Mr. Hales received for his share of the experiment something over two dozen grafted trees, and most of these are now handsome specimens ten to twenty feet high. Just what percentage of the cions set were made to unite and grow I have not been informed, but the experiment was, doubtless, rather unsatisfactory as a commercial transaction.

In addition to the plants sent to Mr. Hales, there have been quite a number distributed among the customers of the nurseries named; consequently, we are pretty well assured of the perpetuation of this remarkably fine variety, even when the original tree succumbs to old age, or should it be accidentally destroyed. I am inclined to give Mr. Trumpy credit for being the first man to graft the shellbark hickory in this or any other country, and make the cions unite and grow, for I have failed to find any instance of success in this mode of propagating these trees, prior to his with the Hales' Paper-shell.

In reply to a note sent him a few months since, asking: "How did or do you graft the hickories?" he replied as follows:

"I put the hickory stocks in pots in the spring, and graft them the following spring, say in April, and in the house. The cions are cut during the winter, so as to keep them in good order until wanted for use. I find it is better to operate in April than earlier in the winter. I also graft them out of doors about the beginning of May, when the stocks are growing. They will succeed very well out of doors, provided the stocks are large enough for the cions. Any kind of grafting will do, but crown grafting is the best. I have not done much of late in the way of grafting hickories in the nursery, not having suitable stocks; besides, when the weather becomes warm enough for outside work, vegetation pushes far too rapidly to give a man a chance to do much of this kind of grafting."

Since the above was written and while these pages were being put in type, Mr. Jackson Dawson, of the Arnold Arboretum, Jamaica Plain, Mass., has given his method of grafting the hickories, in Garden and Forest, Feb. 19, 1896, as follows:

"My method," writes Mr. Dawson, "has been to side-graft, using a cion with part of the second year's wood attached, binding it firmly and covering it with damp sphagnum until the union has been made. The best time I have found for the operation under glass has been during February, and the plants have been kept under glass until midsummer, and wintered the first year in a cold frame. In all the genera I find certain species which may be called free stocks,—that is, stocks which take grafts more readily than others. Thus, nearly all the oaks will graft readily on Quercus Robur; the birches will graft more easily on Betula alba than on others; so of the hickories, observation has led me to believe that the best stock is the bitternut, Hicoria minima. This species grows almost twice as rapidly as the common shagbark hickory, and while young the cambium is quite soft. I should advise anyone who wishes to propagate hickories on a large scale to grow stocks of this species in boxes not more than four inches deep. In this way all the roots can be saved and there will be no extreme taproot, and when shaken out of the boxes the plants are easily established in pots and ready for grafting. If taken up in the ordinary way from the woods, it requires almost two years to get them well rooted, and often the stocks die for want of roots after the grafts have really taken. If grown in rich soil, the stocks will be large enough to use in one or two years. I should then pot them early in the fall, keeping them from heavy frosts, and bringing them into the house about the first of January, and as soon as they begin to make roots. I should side-graft them close to the collar and plunge them in sphagnum moss, leaving the top bud of the graft out to the air. The graft ought to be well united about the last of March, when the plants should be taken from the sphagnum and set in the body of the house to finish their growth."

All who have had any experience in the propagation of trees by grafting in spring, are well aware of the flight of time, in the hurry of work that must be done in a few days or not at all. It is true that the season for grafting may be prolonged or extended a little by cutting the cions in winter and storing them in a cool, moist place, where they remain dormant after vegetation has started in the open air; but this does not affect the stocks, and these may come on slowly or rapidly, varying with the seasons, and the grafter must not only watch for opportune moments, but take his chances of striking the right time and conditions, in order to be successful. With such hard wood trees as the hickories it is better to be a little ahead of time than a few days too late, for frosts, and even quite a severe freeze, will not injure a dormant cion, and under the most favorable conditions the union between stock and cion is a rather slow process. For this reason I advise giving as much time as possible, and while I do not claim to having had any personal experience as a grafter, in the South, still I am inclined to think that grafting in the fall, and not later than December, would be preferable to later in winter or spring. By giving the cion and stock two or three months in which to form granulations and cohesion, there would be more certainty of success. Of course, I now refer to what is called crown grafting on the root below the surface of the ground, and when the cion is fixed in place with the usual ligatures of waxed paper or cloth, the soil is drawn back into place and the cion entirely covered with it, but very lightly over the terminal bud.

[FIG. 68]. CROWN GRAFTING ON ROOTS OF THE HICKORY.

Where small stocks are not at hand, the roots of large trees may be severed and the end partly lifted towards the surface, as shown in Fig. 68, and when grafted, allowed to remain in position until the following season, and then taken up entire or with roots enough to insure future growth. The same or a similar process may be practiced to propagate a choice variety of the hickory, and a mere severing of the roots will insure the production of suckers from near the severed end, as shown in Fig. 69.

[FIG. 69]. SPROUTS FROM SEVERED HICKORY ROOTS.

In grafting isolated stocks in this way, a small or large stake should be placed by the side of each, to indicate their position, and also protect them from being trampled upon. I make this suggestion because, in my own experience, it has often proved successful with various kinds of hard-wooded trees and shrubs that failed when grafted in the spring. Here in the North it is rather difficult, as well as expensive, to protect cions set in the open ground in the fall; but in the South it is different, and a handful of almost any coarse litter would be sufficient to prevent severe freezing.

But grafting in the fall in the open ground is unnecessary, where small seedling stocks are used in the propagation of any kind of tree; in fact, nurserymen do very little grafting of this kind in spring, for they learned, by long experience, that the most economical and certain method of multiplying such trees is to take up the stocks in the fall, and then graft them indoors during the winter, having stocks and cions stored in cool cellars or pits, where they will be readily accessible when wanted. Apples, pears, quinces, grapes, and many other kinds of hardy trees, shrubs and vines are now extensively propagated by grafting during the winter months, and I do not know of any good reason why the hickories and other closely allied nut trees should not be multiplied in this way. I have tried it, on a limited scale, with the shellbark hickories, and with fair success, and in my opinion it is the only way by which the hickories, including the pecan, can be multiplied cheaply enough to become of commercial importance.

The small stocks of one or two years old should be taken up in the fall, and then crown grafted any time from December to March in the Northern States, but the earlier the better; then pack away the grafted stocks in moss or soil, in a cool cellar, or heel-in elsewhere, as, for instance, in pits or frames, where they will not be frozen, and yet cool enough to prevent active growth.

In the spring the grafted stocks should be planted out in nursery rows, and deep enough to have the top of the cion just level with the surface after the soil has been settled about it by a shower or heavy rains. The plants must be handled with care, so as not to disturb the cions. Mulching will, of course, be beneficial in dry seasons, and especially if the stocks are set in ordinary well-drained soils. In selecting wood for cions, twigs of the previous season's growth are usually preferred, but it is not necessary, nor is it advisable to discard all except the extreme end of the shoot or that containing a terminal bud, as some writers have advised, to prevent rapid loss of moisture by evaporation, for a drop of wax will seal the end of a cion as thoroughly and effectually as a natural bud; besides, the lower part of the annual twigs is often more firm and really better for grafting than the upper and less sturdy wood, and the lateral buds on it will push just as readily as the terminal one. The cion may be three or four inches long, and contain two or more buds. The sealing of the upper end of a cion that is not protected by a terminal bud is certainly important with all of the hickories, for in this genus of trees the pith is large and continuous, not intersected or cut off by a thin partition of wood at the joints, as seen in many trees, shrubs and vines. This large and continuous pith in the hickories is another reason why the cions succeed best if set below the crown and in or on the fleshy roots having no pith. They may be set on one side, as in splice grafting, or in the center, or in a cleft made for their reception with a sharp knife, then bound with waxed paper, or wrapped with bass, raffia, or other similar material, and afterwards covered with melted wax to exclude air and water from the joints and wounds.

In this mode of grafting hickories it is not necessary to employ the entire root or stock, if it is of large size, for a single cion; for pieces of from six to twelve inches long, containing a few lateral fibers, will answer the purpose, and it will be found, in practice, that these sections of the large fleshy roots contain so much vitality that, if the cions set in them fail to grow, they will throw up sprouts from adventitious buds during the ensuing summer. Almost any fair-sized piece of root left in the ground, when digging up hickory trees large or small, is pretty certain to throw up sprouts, this not only showing their great vitality, but that propagation by root cuttings is perfectly practicable and may be utilized whenever and wherever it may be desirable. The man who attempts to raise hickories from root cuttings must have patience, for very frequently the cuttings will remain apparently dormant in the ground one entire season before the sprouts appear above the surface. I will also add that this slow or retarded germination frequently occurs with the nuts, especially if they have become somewhat dry before planting.

For commercial purposes root-grafting small stock, as described, during the fall and winter, gives promise of being the best and most practicable system of multiplying varieties; but there is much yet to be learned in regard to details, and hundreds of carefully conducted experiments may be necessary to determine the exact time, condition and mode of operation. It may be that very early grafting is better than late, or that we have not, as yet, found the best species for stocks, and that a half-ripened one will be preferable to one fully matured. Neither has it, as yet, been determined what kind of material is best in which to store the grafted roots: sand, soil or sphagnum (moss) from the swamps; or whether they should be kept very moist, or comparatively dry; very cold, or moderately warm. Here is a wide field for experiments, and a most interesting one; for the successful propagation of the hickories by any mode that will insure the perpetuation and rapid multiplication of varieties, means millions of dollars added to the wealth of the country.

Age of Fruiting.—We hear much of the precociousness of pecan trees in the South, and many are reported as coming into bearing at the age of six to ten years from the time of planting the nut; but these are probably exceptional instances of early fruiting and not the rule, although in a favorable soil and climate it is to be expected that such trees will push forward more rapidly than under less favorable conditions. Grafted trees will, of course, produce fruit in less time than seedlings, and as this mode of propagation becomes more general, and repeated in a direct ancestral line, the cions for each successive generation of trees being taken from mature or bearing specimens, the precocious and productive habit will eventually become intensified, as it has been in all of our long-cultivated fruit trees propagated by artificial methods. We have so intensified the productiveness of many kinds of cultivated fruits by selection, that it has become more of a fault, than a merit to be encouraged.

The nut trees are amenable to the same physiological laws as other kinds, and in their propagation by grafting with cions from bearing specimens we hasten maturity in the offspring. This has been fully demonstrated in many varieties of the Persian walnuts and European chestnuts. Here in the Northern States we have had so little experience with grafted hickories of any species, that really nothing is yet known as to how they will respond to this mode of propagation, further than that they grow rapidly and give promise of being fruitful. Seedling trees are, as a rule, of slow growth, rarely attaining a bearing age and size under twenty years, and with the shellbarks thirty or forty years usually pass before anything like a crop of nuts is gathered. Something may be gained, in the way of time, by frequent transplantings and pruning, but more by grafting seedlings from old and mature trees. Two grafts of the Hales' hickory commenced bearing at the age of sixteen years.

Planting for Profit.—There are, doubtless, many thousands of acres of half-denuded woodlands in almost every State in the Union, both North and South, that could be readily utilized for growing hickory timber, and much of such lands is almost useless for other purposes; but timber culture and forestry is a subject which I have discussed elsewhere,[1] while the object of this work is to aid my readers in producing something that may be utilized as food. When the hundreds and thousands of miles of our public highways are shaded with hickory and other nut-bearing trees of the best species and varieties, it will be time enough to begin planting such kinds elsewhere. As roadside trees they cannot fail to be profitable, largely enhancing the value of adjoining land; for in addition to being equally as ornamental as other kinds, they yield fruit always in demand at remunerative prices. The three species of the hickory and their varieties recommended for cultivation all thrive best in moist soils, but by occasional watering or thorough mulching they will succeed almost anywhere, especially in naturally dry locations.

[1] Practical Forestry.

Insect Enemies.—The hickories, as with all other nut-bearing trees, have numerous insect enemies, but these are neither so numerous nor destructive as to seriously interfere with their growth in general, or with their productiveness. Insects may occasionally become exceedingly numerous in certain localities for a few years, then suddenly or slowly disappear; but this we must expect, as one of the coexisting phases of all agricultural pursuits.

Collectively the hickories have no considerable number of destructive insect enemies, but if we count all the species of the various orders that have been found occasionally, or otherwise, feeding on the leaves, buds, fruit, twigs, bark, or boring in the solid wood, they make a very formidable list of names, or about one hundred and seventy-five in all; but fully ninety per cent. of these depredators are scarcely known, except to a few professional entomologists, and unless they become more destructive in the future than they are at present, or have been in years past, nut culturists have little to fear from their depredations. Among the most common species of insects injurious to the hickory, the following may prove most annoying to the cultivator.

[FIG. 70].

The hickory-twig girdler (Oncideres cingulatus. Say).—A small yellowish-gray beetle, a little less than an inch long, usually appearing in this latitude during August, the females depositing their eggs in the twigs of from a quarter to a half-inch in diameter. On old large trees the loss of a few or many of these is scarcely noticed; but on young seedlings or grafted stock it is quite a different affair, for on such plants the females usually select the leader in preference to the lateral twigs in which to deposit their eggs. The female girdles the twigs for the purpose of providing proper and acceptable food for her progeny; that is, first the green, then the slowly drying, then the perfectly hard, seasoned hickory or whatever kind she may have attacked. Selecting a suitable twig, she rests upon it, usually with head downward (Fig. 70), and with her mandibles cuts out a ring of bark about one-twelfth of an inch wide, and deep enough to reach the firm wood underneath. The place selected for this annular incision may be only a few inches from the terminal bud, or a foot below it, and in some instances she will cut two incisions on the same twig some distance apart, but usually there is only one on a twig. While cutting this incision she will sometimes rest long enough from her labors to deposit an egg in the bark above. The number of eggs she deposits in the twig is probably variable, but three full-grown grubs is the most I have ever found, and the larger proportion examined had only one. This girdling of the twig prevents the flow of sap, and the leaves soon wither and drop off, and the bark and wood shrivel and become hard and dry; but in the meantime the eggs have hatched and the minute grubs have bored their way through the soft bark and reached the pith, feeding in this while acquiring size and strength of jaws that will enable them to consume more solid food later and during the succeeding winter, spring and summer. Some do not reach maturity until the second summer; at least, in this latitude, as I have found after very careful observation and while collecting many hundreds of specimens. I will say, however, that this insect is usually referred to by entomologists as rather rare, and in general it is, but some years ago, in an old clearing near by where there was a great number of young hickory seedlings and sprouts, it was for a season or two very abundant; then it suddenly disappeared, and I have not taken a half-dozen specimens since. The grubs bore out the wood in the infested twig, and in most instances so completely as to leave only a thin shell of the wood or bark, by the time they have reached maturity and are ready to pass into their imago or perfect-winged stage.

This species of twig girdler also attacks the apple, pear, persimmon, elm, and other kinds of trees, and with those like the apple, with a soft and brittle wood, the girdled twigs are frequently broken off by the winds; but this rarely occurs with the hickories, and we can usually find the stumps remaining on the trees years after the beetles have emerged. The only way to keep this pest in check is to cut off and burn the girdled twigs any time before the larvæ have reached maturity, and as the girdled dead twigs are readily seen, the gathering is not difficult, from medium-sized trees.

The painted hickory borer (Cyllene pictus. Drury).—This is, perhaps, one of the most common and widely distributed of all the hickory borers, but, so far as my observations have extended, it rarely attacks young or healthy trees of any age; in fact, I have never found it in or about growing trees, but I have seen it, by the thousands, breeding in decaying specimens and in hickory cordwood cut during the winter months and ranked up in shady places. A hickory tree cut down in fall or winter, and left on the ground or cut up into cordwood, is pretty sure to attract this borer early in spring, the females swarming over the bark, depositing their eggs upon it, and by the ensuing autumn the wood will be fairly honeycombed if this insect is at all abundant. The general color of the beetle is black, and the size as shown in Fig. 71. There are three narrow, whitish bands across the top of the thorax, and one slightly broader band at the extreme point of the wing-covers; but the next band is in the form of an inverted V; the point of the Λ does not quite touch the broad lateral band, as in the closely allied species known as the locust borer (C. robiniæ), with which it is often confounded; besides, in the latter the markings are of a deep yellow, and not white or of a faint yellowish tinge. The hickory borer always appears in spring, and the locust borer in the fall, not later than September in this part of the country. Below or behind the V-shaped band there are three others, but all broken up into mere dots, and not continuous.

[FIG. 71]. HICKORY BORER.

In the South, and especially in Texas, there is a somewhat smaller but closely allied species (Cyllene crinicornis) that attacks the pecan tree and its wood in the same way as our common hickory borer, but in the Southern or Southwestern species the bands on the wing-covers are all interrupted or broken up into small white spots or dots. I have no remedy to suggest, further than to cut down old, infested trees, and to haul the wood out into the sun and spread it out where it will quickly dry and become seasoned. If the felled tree and wood is stripped of its bark as soon as cut, the female beetles will not deposit their eggs upon it.

There are other long-horned beetles (Cerambycidæ) that are occasionally found breeding in the hickories, and among these may be named the Belted Chion (Chion cinctus), Tiger Goes (Goes tigrinus), Beautiful Goes (Goes pulchra), and the Orange Sawyer (Elaphidion inerme), but they are usually quite too rare to be considered as very destructive insects.

Hickory-bark borer (Scolytus 4-spinosus. Say).—Only once within my memory has this minute but destructive beetle appeared in any considerable numbers in my neighborhood, although I have occasionally received a few specimens from correspondents in various parts of the country, even as far west as the Pacific coast in Washington. This borer is a very small, cylindrical, dark brown beetle, about one-fifth of an inch or less in length, and one-sixteenth in diameter. The hind part of the body is quite blunt (truncate), the males having four short but distinct blunt spines, two on each side, projecting from the hind part of the abdomen, hence the name "4-spinosus." In the females these spines are absent, otherwise they closely resemble the males. These bark borers usually appear here in the Northern States the last of June or early in July, and both sexes attack hickory trees of all species, but appear to prefer the old and nearly mature trees to the young and small with thinner bark. After boring through the bark and reaching the soft cambium layer underneath, upon which these insects feed, the female cuts a vertical channel in this substance, of little over an inch in length.

[FIG. 72]. BURROWS OF HICKORY SCOLYTUS.

This burrow is a little larger than the diameter of her body, and along on both sides she deposits her eggs, to the number of ten to thirty, placing about an equal number on each side. When these eggs hatch, the young larvæ begin to feed on the soft material by which they are surrounded, making minute burrows at first, and at nearly right angles with the parent one; but as they increase in size they are forced to diverge, those above the center working upward, and those below downward, as shown in Fig. 72. These burrows enlarge as the grubs increase in size, as shown, most of them reaching their full development by the time cold weather sets in, but some do not cease feeding until spring, then pass to the pupal stage, and later to the perfect or beetle form, and from the extreme end of these burrows they bore a hole straight out to the surface, and are then ready to begin the cycle of life again, either on the tree from which they have emerged, or others near by. Some fifteen years ago I noticed that the leaves of some of the old hickory trees on my place were turning yellow prematurely, and upon examination I found the bark perforated with minute holes not larger than small bird shot, indicating the presence of the bark borer under consideration. Seven of the very largest and, presumably, the oldest, appeared to be affected, and these were immediately cut down and stripped of their bark, exposing the little grubs to the air and attacks of insect-eating birds. These trees appeared to have been infested for several years, as there was scarcely a spot on the surface of the wood that had not been scarified with this pest. Since the destruction of these trees I have not been troubled with bark borers, although there are still a number of very old and large hickories thriving in the same grove. The only remedy I can suggest is to cut down infested trees as soon as they are discovered, and also encourage the insect-eating birds to remain in and near the nut groves.

There are several other species of bark borers that occasionally attack hickories, one of these, the Chramesus icoriæ, Leconte, infests the small twigs, while another, the Sinoxylon basilare, say, after boring through the bark, continues its course far into the heartwood, showing a preference for this kind of food instead of the living tissues. These pests, however, are rarely constant, but very erratic, in their attacks, and while they may be rather abundant on a few or many trees a season or two, they then disappear, and not one may be seen for several decades.

The hickory-shuck worm (Grapholitha caryana. Fitch).—The parent of this pest is a minute moth of the family Tortricidæ, the small caterpillars mining and boring the green husks, and sometimes into the immature shell, causing the nuts to wither and drop off prematurely, although an occasional one may reach maturity, even in its scarified condition. This insect appears to be somewhat rare in the East, but very abundant some years in the West, where it is frequently destructive to the thick shellbark hickory and pecan. The first fresh specimens of the Nussbaumer Hybrid pecan nut (referred to on a preceding page) were so badly bored and scarified by this worm when received, that they would have been nearly or quite worthless for either planting or other purposes. As this insect attacks the nuts on the very largest trees in the forest and elsewhere, I cannot suggest any other remedy than to gather the immature and infested nuts as they fall, and burn them, with their contents.

Among the larger Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) there are many species, the caterpillars of which occasionally feed on the leaves of the hickories, but not exclusively; consequently, they cannot be considered as the special enemies of this genus of trees. When they do attack them, it is as much due to accident as design. This is certainly true with the great Luna moth (Attacus luna) and the American silk worm (Telea polyphemus), and various species of the Catocala, as well as the Tent caterpillar (Clisiocampa sylvatica).

There is also a hickory-nut weevil, closely allied to the species infesting the chestnut; and while not quite as large, its habits are similar, and its ravages may be checked by the same or similar means. The grubs bore into the green nuts, causing some to fall before half-grown; others may remain in the nuts until they are ripe and gathered in the autumn; consequently, perforated hickory nuts are not at all rare, even on the stands of venders in our cities.

Bud worms, leaf miners, leaf rollers and plant lice,—and among the latter several gall-making species,—are to be found on the hickories; but with all these natural enemies to contend with, the hickories thrive, grow, and yield their fruits in greater or less abundance. To enumerate, describe and illustrate all the insects known to be enemies of the hickory would require a large volume, but fortunately there are many special works published on the insects injurious to vegetation, and these are readily obtainable by all who may have occasion to consult their pages.

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CHAPTER VIII.

THE WALNUT.

Juglans. The ancient Latin name, first used by Pliny, contracted from Jovis glans, the nut of Jove or Jupiter. A genus of about eight species, three or four of these indigenous to the United States.

Order, Juglandaceæ (Walnut family).—Medium to large deciduous trees with odd-pinnate leaves; leaflets from fifteen to twenty-one, serrate, mainly oblong and pointed. The sexes of flowers separate (monœcious) on the same tree, the males in pendulous green cylindrical catkins two to three inches long, solitary or in pairs, sessile,—not stalked, as in the hickories,—issuing from the one-year-old twigs, and at the upper edge of the scar left by the falling leaf of the previous season (Fig. 73), showing that the male organs emanate from an aggregation of bud-cells in the axils of the leaves during the preceding summer and autumn. Female flowers terminal on the new growth in spring, also single, in clusters, and occasionally in long pendulous racemes with a four-cleft calyx, four minute petals and two thick curved stigmas. Fruit round or oblong (Fig. 74); husk thin, drying up without opening by seams, as in the hickories. Shell of nut either rough and deeply corrugated, with sharp-pointed ridges, or quite smooth, with an undulating, wavy surface, very thick in some species and thin in others; kernel two- or indistinctly four-lobed, united at the apex, fleshy, rich and oily.

[FIG. 73]. PERSIAN WALNUT, SHOWING POSITION OF SEXUAL ORGANS.

History.—The common walnut, so long and widely known in commerce under various names, such as Persian, English, French, Italian and European walnuts, also as Madeira nut, and recently Chile walnut, are now all believed to have descended from trees native of Persia, most plentiful in the province of Ghilan on the Caspian sea, between latitude 35° and 40°, hence the old Grecian name of the fruit, viz.: Persicon and Basilicon, or Persian Royal nut, probably because either introduced by the Greek monarchs, or sent to them by the Persian kings. Later,—according to Pliny,—the Greeks called the trees Caryon, on account of the strong scent of the foliage, and from this name Nuttall coined his word, Carya, for our indigenous hickories, as explained in the preceding chapter. It should also be noted here that the elder Michaux, in 1782-4, was the first modern botanist to visit the province of Ghilan, and he determined, by personal investigation, that this species of the walnut was really indigenous to that region of country, along with the peach and apricot.

[FIG. 74]. BEARING BRANCH OF ENGLISH WALNUT.

Earlier European authors claim that the walnut was first introduced into Italy by Vitellius (emperor) early in the first century of the Christian Era,—but this is uncertain,—the Romans giving it the name of Juglandes, or the nut of Jove or Jupiter, both being the same mythical personage. The nuts, at this early day, were highly prized, and also the wood of the tree, the latter being even more valuable than that of the citron (orange and lemon). Ovid wrote a poem about these nuts, entitled De Nuce, from which we learn that boys were employed to, or did of their own accord, knock off these nuts; and that at marriages walnuts were thrown by the bride and bridegroom among the children, a ceremony which was supposed to indicate that the bridegroom had left off his boyish amusements, and that the bride was no longer a votary of Diana, and it is quite probable that the French word for nuptials, des nôces, was derived from this ancient custom. The ancients also believed that walnuts possessed powerful medicinal properties, even to the curing of hydrophobia; but in these latter days they have lost most of their curative virtues, in the opinion of the medical fraternity.

As with the chestnut, the planting of the walnut extended northward into Gaul (France), hence the earlier name of Gaul nuts, which became corrupted into walnuts by the English-speaking people. The Italian name is Noci; in France, Noyer; and the Germans, with their usual habit of compounding names, call it walnuss-baum or walnut tree.

Joannis De Loureiro, in his work on the plants of China, "Flora Cochinchinensis," published in 1790, claims that this Persian walnut is also a native of the northern provinces of China, with two other species which he describes (p. 573), adding, however, that one of these is cultivated in Cochin China, and the other is found wild in the mountains.

The wild form of this world-wide-famous nut is, doubtless, quite different from the varieties with which we are familiar, for two thousand years or more of continuous cultivation and selections have greatly changed the character of these nuts, as well as the habit of the trees. The nuts from the wild trees are said to have a rather thick shell, and to be much smaller than the best of the improved cultivated varieties, or very like those we now obtain in China and Japan. The Persian walnut, in its many varieties, has been planted almost everywhere in Europe as far north as Warsaw, but does not appear to have run wild and become naturalized, as with many other kinds of fruit and forest trees. In Great Britain it has probably been cultivated ever since the invasion of the country by the Romans, although a much later date is named by some of our modern horticultural authorities. Dodoens (1552), Gerarde (1597), Parkinson (1629), and other of our early authors of works on cultivated plants, speak of the Persian walnut as common in various countries of Europe, Great Britain included. John Evelyn, in his "Sylva" (1664), says:

"In Burgundy, walnut trees abound where they stand, in the meadows of goodly lands, at sixty and a hundred feet distance, and so far as hurting the crop, they are looked upon as great preservers, keeping the ground warm, nor do the roots hinder the plow."

Evelyn, no doubt, had read what Pliny had said on this point, viz.:

"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; but it is certain that neither grass nor field nor garden crops thrive well under the walnut."

Evelyn was far too good a gardener and close observer to fall into the error of attributing noxious properties to the walnut tree, although Pliny's assertion, which has no foundation beyond his imagination, has been many times repeated in these days of supposed general intelligence. Small plants may fail, under the shade of large trees, or when deprived of moisture by the roots of such trees, but the walnut is no exception to the rule; in fact, such deep-rooted kinds are less injurious than those with roots nearer the surface. Evelyn, in continuing his account of the walnut in Germany, says:

"Whenever they fell a tree, which is only the old, decayed, they always plant a young one near him, and, in several places betwixt Hanau and Frankfort, no young farmer whatsoever is permitted to marry a wife till he bring proof that he is a father of such a stated number of walnut trees; and the law is inviolably observed to this day, for the extraordinary benefit which this tree affords the inhabitants."

What a pity that some such custom could not have prevailed during the past century in the United States. The author from whom I have just quoted adds that the Bergstrasse, which extends from Heidelberg to Darmstadt, is all planted with walnuts.

Cold winters, however, have occasionally played havoc with the walnut trees in Europe, and one of these occurred in 1709, when the greater part of the trees were seriously injured, especially in Switzerland, Germany and France. Many trees were cut down for their timber, which is always in great demand for gun-stocks and furniture. Certain Dutch capitalists, foreseeing the scarcity of walnut timber, bought up all they could procure, and years afterwards sold it at a greatly advanced price. In the year 1720 an act was passed in France to prevent the exportation of walnut timber, and this led to the planting of these trees more extensively than at any previous date; this practice has continued to the present time, hence the immense revenue secured from the exportation of these nuts. The people of the United States are good customers for the surplus stock of Europe, and will probably so continue, until we wake up to a sense of our folly of perpetually buying articles that could be readily produced at home, and at a very large profit.

Persian Walnut in America.—The date of the first experiment in planting this nut in this country is now probably unknown, but the oldest tree that I have been able to find with anything like a satisfactory history, is still growing vigorously at Washington Heights, on Manhattan Island, near 160th street and St. Nicholas avenue. I gave a brief history of this noble monarch of its race in the American Garden for September, 1888, from which the following account is condensed:

"In 1758 Roger Morris, an English gentleman, built a spacious mansion on his estate, at what, in later years, became known as Washington Heights. His grounds were well laid out for that time, and many rare foreign trees and shrubs planted, among them several, as then called, English walnuts. Whether these trees were raised from the nuts, or plants of some size imported, is not now known. Mr. Morris may have procured the seedlings from the Prince Nursery, Flushing, L. I., for this famous garden was established in 1713, or forty-five years previous to the building of the Morris mansion and the planting of the grounds about it.

"At that period no one doubted the hardiness of the so-called English walnut in America, and as most of the nuts and trees procured for planting came from acclimated stock in Great Britain or the cooler region of Europe, success usually attended such experiments. Our pioneers and horticulturists fully expected that the trees would thrive and bear nuts in abundance, and time has shown that they were not mistaken, although we frequently see it stated at this late day, that the Persian walnut is not hardy north of the latitude of Washington, Philadelphia, or other cities south of New York.

"One hundred and thirty-eight years have rolled by since walnut trees were planted at Washington Heights, and at least one of the originals has escaped destruction and holds its head aloft, defying the tempests which frequently sweep over that elevated and exposed spot on Manhattan Island. This veritable patriarch of its race in America is a monster in size, its stem between four and five feet in diameter at the base and more than seventy-five feet high, with wide-spreading branches.

"In the summer of 1776 the Battle of Long Island was fought, and the American forces were compelled to retreat in confusion to New York, thence northward up the island; but when they reached Fort Washington, not far from the eleventh milestone on the old Albany post road, they made a stand and proceeded to entrench themselves at that place. This was in September, 1776, and General Washington took possession of the Morris mansion near by, making it his headquarters, and, as this was at the season when the walnuts had reached an edible stage, we may safely presume, from his well-known predilection for such delicacies, that he tested the quality of the Morris walnuts. One hundred and twenty years later I am writing this, with some fresh specimens of nuts before me from that same old tree.

"This old patriarch has cast its shade over many a noted person in its time, for in 1810 the Morris estate passed into the hands of Madame Jumel, a lady long famous for her hospitality and the good cheer she extended to the surviving patriots of the Revolution. From 1810 to the time of her death, 1865, Madame Jumel's household always had an abundance of walnuts from the old tree, and one of the workmen on the place informed me that about two cartloads was considered a fair annual crop."

It cannot be many years before this old tree will meet the same fate that has overtaken many of its younger contemporaries which were once growing in the neighborhood, for with the rush for building lots and the opening of new streets and avenues, trees are usually in the way, and in such cases even patriarchs are not sacred, nor do they command much respect from our urban population.[2]

[2] Since writing the above, and while these pages are being put in type, accidentally I learn with regret that the old Morris walnut tree has been destroyed.

A half-century ago there was quite a large number of walnut trees scattered about on the northern half of Manhattan Island, many of these probably descendants of the old Morris trees, but of this nothing definite is now known. A number of persons whose ages permitted them to scan the early days of the present century, have assured me that in their childhood they had often collected walnuts from goodly sized trees on farms, from Harlem northward on the island. The largest number of Persian walnut trees planted in any one place was on the Tieman farm at Manhattanville, these being set out as roadside trees, some of which are still standing, although in the march of improvements they must soon disappear. These trees have always been noted for their productiveness, bearing a full crop every alternate year, and a lighter one in what is termed the "off season."

While the old Morris walnut tree, and the large number growing on the Tieman estate, and scores of others scattered about New York city and its suburbs,

have been, and many still are, living witnesses of the fact that varieties of the Persian walnut will thrive in this latitude, certain horticultural authors and essayists have continually asserted the contrary.

Mr. F. J. Scott, in his superb and voluminous work, "Suburban Home Grounds," in speaking of this species of the walnut, says, p. 351:

"Though greatly valued in England and on the continent for its beauty, as well as for its nuts, its want of hardiness in the Northern States, and lack of any peculiar beauty in the South, has prevented its culture to any great extent in this country. South of Philadelphia it may be grown with safety."

This seems strange language to have come from such an eminent authority as the late Mr. Scott, inasmuch as he must have passed a hundred times within sight, if not in the very shadow of the rows of old walnut trees growing at Manhattanville, when going from New York city to Newburgh, where he studied landscape gardening under the lamented A. J. Downing, and to whom the work from which I have quoted is dedicated. It is quite evident, however, that our author, like many others, failed to see things that should have interested him.

As an offset to Mr. Scott's idea of the northern limit for the successful cultivation of this nut, I may refer to the work of Mr. George Jacques, "Practical Treatise on Fruit Trees, Adapted to the Interior of New England," published at Worcester, Mass., 1849. In referring to the European walnut, p. 238, he says:

"It is perfectly hardy on Long Island, and to the south of New York, and as far north as the city of Charlestown in this State (Mass.), where there may be seen, in the enclosure of a residence on Harvard street, two fine trees of this kind, either of them much taller and larger than our large-sized apple trees. We have eaten nuts from these trees well ripened and fully equal to any of those imported. The trees often bear a crop of some bushels."

It is unnecessary to search for further proof to show that certain excellent varieties of the Persian walnut do thrive and bear abundantly in our Northern States; not, perhaps, in the extreme boreal borders of New England, nor in those of the northwest, but the acclimated sorts are pretty safe as far north as 42° of latitude, and in protected locations may crowd up a half degree more. I have found very productive trees of this nut in northern New Jersey, several in Bergen county, others in Passaic, and thence southward, and while they are few in number, they are sufficient to prove that this tree is adapted to the soil and climate of the entire State. We seldom find more than one or two trees in any garden, and these are probably more the result of accident than design, their owners seeming to be satisfied in possessing something in the way of a tree not common in the neighborhood, never thinking that it might be well to plant enough of such trees to have them become a source of revenue. The parentage of quite a number of these bearing trees is readily traced to the Morris and Tieman stock, showing that these old trees are of a hardy and prolific race, which are well worthy of perpetuation for cold climates. Very old and large walnut trees are reported as growing in Pennsylvania and other of the Middle States, but they are far from being numerous. It has long been claimed that this species of nut succeeded best in the Southern States, and it is probably true, especially with the tender varieties; but for some reason, unknown to me, they have not been planted there in sufficient numbers to have, as yet, become of any commercial importance.

During the past twenty-five years these nuts have been more extensively planted in California than elsewhere in the United States, and we may expect soon to know something definite in regard to results. Nearly all of the favorite French varieties have been introduced, and are now being tested in different parts of the State, and it is quite likely that the greater part will succeed, although some of the early-blooming sorts may fail in localities subject to late spring frosts. Previous to the introduction of grafted trees of the named varieties, the only trees of this kind planted in California were seedlings raised from the common imported nuts; but I have no statistics at hand to determine the date of the first plantings of this kind.

Of late years there has been received, at some of our seaports, and especially at New York, some quite large consignments of walnuts from South America, under the name of "Chile walnuts," but they are only varieties of the Persian raised in Chile. They are generally of good size, moderately thin shelled, with plump kernels of excellent flavor. They are in great demand for confectionery, and are really better for such purposes than the larger and fancy bleached walnuts imported under the somewhat general name of Grenobles, or French walnuts. Owing to the difference of climate, these Chile walnuts arrive here late in winter, or about the time those coming from European countries the previous autumn begin to become somewhat stale.

Of our native species of this genus (Juglans), the almost everywhere common butternut ranks first in flavor and general estimation, but owing to its hard, rough shell, and the difficulty in extracting the kernel, it has never become of any considerable importance, although usually found in our markets in limited quantities. Of course, it is a general favorite in the country, and wherever found in sufficient quantities the boys and girls lay up a goodly supply for winter use; and cracking butternuts during the long winter evenings is a pastime and pleasure not to be ignored nor forgotten. The flavor of the butternut is far more delicate, and better, than any of the Persian species, but the difficulty in extracting the rather small kernel is a serious objection.

The black walnut has a larger kernel, in proportion to its size, than the butternut, and it is not so difficult to extract when the nuts are dry, but the flavor is too rank for most palates, although it has often been referred to as excellent by the earlier botanists who visited this country; but it has never been considered of much value until quite recently, or since the manufacturers of confectionery discovered that heat somewhat subdued the rank flavor, and now many tons of the meats are annually consumed in candies and walnut cakes. I am credibly informed that cracking black walnuts and shipping the meats to our larger cities has become quite an extensive industry in several of the Middle and Western States. We have two other but smaller native species of the walnut that will be described further on, under the head Species and Varieties.

Propagation of Walnuts.—The propagation of the walnut in the natural way, or by seed, is exceedingly simple, for the nuts grow readily and freely if planted soon after they are ripe, or any time before they become old and the kernels shriveled. It is, of course, best to plant them while fresh, but they are not at all delicate, and may be transported a long distance in a dry condition without seriously affecting their vitality. If walnuts are given the same care as recommended in the preceding pages for other kinds of nuts, so much the better.

[FIG. 75]. SEEDLING WALNUT.

The seedlings of walnuts, like those of other species, usually produce long taproots, and if grown in a compact soil, these will have few small lateral fibers the first season, as shown in Fig. 75; but when taken up and the vertical main root shortened at a, and then replanted, they produce fibrous roots in abundance. The trees of almost any age from one to twenty years old, are not at all difficult to make live when transplanted, provided the branches or tops of the trees are reduced, to correspond with loss of roots in digging up at the time of removal. It may be well to give a word of caution to the novice in nut culture about pruning nut trees in spring, after the sap begins to flow; for if done at this time they will bleed freely and leave unhealthy wounds and black, unsightly spots on the bark. Prune walnuts in summer or early in winter, to give time for the wounds to season before the buds swell in spring. If young trees are to be dug up, prune after they are taken from the ground, then the sap will not flow from the wounds. This is true of all deciduous trees, vines and shrubs. If the trees have few small roots when taken up, prune severely; but if roots are abundant, little pruning will be required. It is seldom, however, in transplanting walnuts, that the pruning need be as severe as recommended for the chestnut; in fact, having transplanted walnuts of various species, and of all ages from one to twenty years, without the loss of a plant, I have come to the conclusion that they are pretty safe trees to handle, in this climate, at least, if not elsewhere.

In seeking walnuts from a distance, for planting anywhere in the Middle or Northern States, it will be well to learn something in advance about the climate in which the nuts are raised; for it would be folly to send for either trees or nuts to a warm or semi-tropical region, like that of southern France or Spain, for a stock to cultivate in a climate as cold as that of New York, New Jersey, and States on the same line westward. We might, perchance, from such importation, secure one hardy plant in a hundred or thousand, but there would be no certainty of even this small number.

This idea of acclimation and adaptation of trees to conditions and climate should not be overlooked by the nut culturist, no matter from what source he procures his stock, whether from abroad, or some distant region of his own country. If it can be obtained from a region where it has been growing under conditions similar to those to which it is to be transferred for cultivation, then the chances of success will certainly be largely augmented. Acclimation is a slow process; in fact, too slow for us to expect to secure any appreciable advantages from it in a lifetime, but in nature we seek final results, leaving time out of the question.

In raising seedling trees we cannot expect much more than a reproduction of the species, and not that of the parent tree. Plants that have been subjected to unnatural conditions and surroundings, as usual under cultivation, are far more likely to show a wider range of variation in the seedlings than those growing wild in their native habitats; but even the latter cannot be depended upon to reproduce exact types from seed. In other words, there is nothing certain about seedling nut trees; the large nuts may produce trees bearing very small ones, the early-ripening give late ones, the tall dwarf trees and the precocious fruiting some of the most tardy varieties; and yet, with all this uncertainty, we still think it best to select for planting the best nuts obtainable, i. e., best and most promising for the conditions under which the seedlings are to be grown.

For the multiplication and perpetuation of choice varieties we must resort to artificial modes of propagation, mainly by budding and grafting. These modes, however, while the best at present known, are so difficult and uncertain in cool climates,—even in the hands of the most skilful propagators,—that grafted walnut trees have never been very plentiful in the nurseries of this or other countries with which we have commercial relations. In the south of France nurserymen appear to have been more successful in the propagation of walnuts by budding and grafting, than elsewhere; but in the northern provinces, as well as in Great Britain, we hear little of this mode of propagation. So difficult has this mode of propagating the walnut been considered in England, that Thomas Andrew Knight, president of the London Horticultural Society, early in the present century discouraged all attempts to propagate this tree by such means; but later, in a paper read before the Society April 7, 1818, he admits to having changed his mind, especially in regard to budding the walnut, and says:

"The buds of trees of almost every species succeed with most certainty when inserted on the shoots of the same year's growth; but the walnut tree appears to afford an exception; possibly, in some measure, because its buds contain within themselves, in the spring, all the leaves which the tree bears in the following summer, whence its annual shoots cease to elongate soon after its buds unfold; all its buds of each season are also, consequently, very nearly of the same age, and long before any have acquired the proper degree of maturity for being removed, the annual branches have ceased to grow longer or to produce new foliage.... To obviate the disadvantage arising from the preceding circumstances, I adopted means of retarding the period of the vegetation of the stocks comparatively with that of the bearing tree: and by these means I became partially successful. There are, at the base of the annual shoots of the walnut and other trees, where these join the year-old wood, many minute buds which are almost concealed in the bark, and which rarely or never vegetate but in the event of the destruction of the large prominent buds which occupy the middle and opposite end of the annual wood. By inserting in each stock one of these minute buds and one of the large prominent kind, I had the pleasure to find that the minute buds took freely, while the large all failed without a single exception."

From the above and other remarks of Mr. Knight, in the paper read by him, I infer that he kept the stocks in pots stored in a cool place in spring, until he could obtain shoots of the season from bearing trees, and from these minute undeveloped axillary buds for inserting in the stocks. These buds, as he informs us, are inserted in the wood of the preceding season, and near the summit or top. He does not give any directions for holding the buds in place, whether by waxed or plain bass ligatures; the former, however, would probably be preferable, for the purpose of excluding the air and water.

Some twenty years later (1838) J. C. Loudon, in "Arboretum Britannicum," etc., refers to the propagation of the walnut as follows:

"Much has been written on the subject by French authors, from which it appears that in the north of France, and in cold countries generally, the walnut does not bud or graft easily by any mode; but that in the south of France and north of Italy it may be budded or grafted by different modes, with success. At Metz, the Baron de Tschoudy found the flute method (Fig. 76) almost the only one which he could practice with success. By this mode an entire ring of bark, containing one or more buds, is removed from a twig on a tree to be multiplied, and transferred to the stock, and made to fit as shown. If the ring is too large, a slice may be cut off; and if too small, a piece of the bark of the stock may be left to fill the space."

Both stock and parent tree must be in about the same condition or stage of growth when this ring budding is done, in order that the bark containing the bud may peel off freely from the wood, and this is always in the spring, soon after the buds begin to unfold and the sap is in motion. Loudon says that in Dauphine, France, young plants in the nurseries are budded chiefly by this mode, which succeeds best the closer the operation is performed to the collar of the plant; and the same is true in grafting, the nearer the root the better, as has been found by experience with hickories.

[FIG. 76]. FLUTE BUDDING.

Charles Baltet, in his "L'Art de Greffer," recommends grafting in the usual mode of crown grafting, also flute or ring grafting, in April or May, and ordinary cleft grafting close to the root and at the forks of the branches, etc. He says that the cion should be cut, as much as possible, obliquely across the pith, so that it may be exposed on one side only. He also advises using cions whose base consists of wood of two years' growth, and these furnished with a terminal bud. He cautions propagators against grafting early-growing kinds upon those of later vegetation. If walnuts of any of the native or foreign species have been successfully propagated by budding or grafting, at any of the nurseries in our Eastern States, it has not been made known in the nurserymen's catalogues.

Michael Floy, who early in the present century had quite extensive grounds devoted to fruit and ornamental trees, near what is now the center of New York city, as we learn from his "Guide to the Orchard," published in 1833, claims, in this work, that the Persian walnuts thrive well in this country, but admits that he had never succeeded in grafting the trees, and with the hickories had no better success, although he had tried them many times; but he adds:

"Still I do not say it is impossible either to bud or graft them; but there is something peculiar about it, for both the bud and graft turn black when cut, almost instantaneously. Others may succeed better, but let them try it before they affirm it upon hearsay; they may succeed very well by inarching."

Coming down to the present day, in our search for facts and information in regard to the propagation of varieties of the walnut, we may find it interesting to visit California, which, of all the States of the Union, is perhaps the best adapted to nut culture in general; besides, a larger number of nut trees of various kinds have been planted there than elsewhere in this country. It is in California that we find such men as Felix Gillet, of Nevada City, an enthusiastic propagator and cultivator of fruit and nut trees, and especially of the latter, if we may judge by his works and writings on this branch of horticulture,—and so far as I have been able to learn, he is the only nurseryman in the United States who has grafted walnut trees of many different varieties for sale.

In regard to modes of propagation, Mr. Gillet says that the common mode of shield budding, as employed on fruit trees, fails entirely with small walnuts from one to three years from the seed, and it does but seldom succeed even on larger stocks. When tried on large, old stocks, he advises removing all the wood from the inner side of the strip of bark on which the bud is situated, and at the same time have this strip not less than two inches long and as broad as possible. He describes his mode of grafting walnuts, which does not differ materially from those already given. That he has never attained any very remarkable results may be inferred from the following:

"We will add that the 'grafted walnuts' that we offer were grafted expressly for us, regardless of cost, by the most reliable firm to be found in the walnut district in France, through a process discovered several years ago, and which we will briefly describe for the benefit of people who may be inclined to try this new method of grafting very young walnuts.

"One-year-old seedlings of the size of the little finger, or about one-half inch in diameter at the butt, are selected, the root cut back short enough to permit the planting of the trees in pots of three inches in depth; the trees, previously to being potted, are grafted with cions exactly of the same size, whip or cleft grafting being used; the pots are then taken to a hot or propagating house, and a glass bell set over them to prevent the outside air getting to the grafts, the temperature of the house being kept day and night, at least for fifteen days, or till the grafting has taken, to 70° F. When the grafts are well taken and growing, the glass bells are removed, and the grafts allowed to grow three or four inches, before the little grafted trees are set out in nursery rows; it may be preferable, especially in certain parts of the country, to keep the trees in the pots till the ensuing spring. Forty to fifty per cent of the grafts will succeed, and it is the best that can be done.

"This mode of grafting the walnut, besides requiring a hothouse, needs the care of a skillful person to make it succeed. So are grafted the little trees that we import from France, and that we plant in nursery rows and offer to the public."

For other modes of root grafting, I refer the reader to those recommended for the hickories, in the preceding chapter. Propagating walnuts by layers is practicable, where the small trees have been cut down to force out new shoots near the surface of the ground, then bent down and covered with soil in the usual method of layering woody plants.

Planting and Pruning.—The plants will produce a greater number of fibrous roots if the nuts are planted in light, loose, but rich soil, than in a heavy, tenacious one; but with all kinds it is best to transplant when one or two years old, and cut off a portion of the taproots, as recommended for the hickories. When removed from the nursery rows for final planting, prune away nearly or quite all side branches, leaving only the terminal bud if the trees are not more than six to eight feet high. After final planting where the trees are to remain permanently, very little pruning will ever be required, further than to cut away branches that may cross each other, or to shorten some to give proper form to the head. No tree in cultivation requires less pruning than walnuts.

As a genus of trees the walnuts flourish best in deep, rich loam, rather light than heavy, and in this country require considerable moisture at the roots, and some, like the butternut, succeed best in bottomlands, near creeks and larger streams. If the soil is naturally too dry for such trees, the fault can be readily remedied by the use of some form of mulch applied to the surface of the soil around the stem after planting, renewing this annually, or oftener if necessary, until the trees are large enough to shade the ground.

Walnut trees, as well as the closely allied hickories, are well adapted for roadside planting, and when set in such positions are far less likely to be injured by insects than when planted in orchards or large groups, besides serving a double purpose, being ornamental as well as useful. They may also be planted around buildings, and where other and less valuable trees are generally grown. There are also millions of acres of rocky hill-sides and old fields which might be utilized for nut orchards, and if rather widely scattered over such land they would prove beneficial in shading the pasture grasses. First of all, however, let us have rows of these trees along all our country roads, after which it will be time enough to begin planting them elsewhere.

SPECIES AND VARIETIES OF WALNUTS.

Native of the United States (Juglans cinerea. Linn.). Butternut. White Walnut.—Leaflets fifteen to nineteen, oblong-lanceolate and sharp-pointed, rounded at the base, downy, especially on the underside, petioles covered with viscid hairs; fruit oblong, two or more inches in length, with a clammy husk, not opening when ripe, but closely adhering to the deeply corrugated and rough, thick shell. Trees with wide-spreading branches, and of medium hight, or from forty to fifty feet, but in deep forests sometimes sixty to seventy, with stems two to three feet in diameter. A common tree in moist soils almost everywhere, from the Canadas southward to the highlands of northern Georgia, Alabama, and sparingly in Mississippi and Arkansas, and all the States bordering the Mississippi river northward to Minnesota. A valuable timber tree, with soft, light wood, much used of late for furniture and inside house finishing. In early times the inner bark was employed for making a yellow dye, also as a medicine, the extract being a mild cathartic, hence one of the specific names, Cathartica.

Synonyms.

Juglans oblonga alba, Marshall.
Juglans cathartica, Michaux.
Carya cathartica, Barton, 1818.
Wallia cinerea, Alefeld, 1861.

Varieties of the Butternut.—There are to be found many varieties of the butternut, varying mainly in the size of the nuts, and only slightly in the thickness of the shell; but I am not aware that any of these have ever been propagated, all the trees in cultivation or elsewhere having been grown from the nuts. This nut is, no doubt, susceptible of great improvement, as well as others of the genus, and it is worthy of being experimented with for that purpose, especially in cold, northern climates, where there are few or no other kinds of edible nuts. Probably the most direct and surest way to secure improved varieties is by hybridizing, taking the butternut for the female parent, and the Persian walnut for the male. Hybrids between these two species are already known, and they will, no doubt, become more plentiful as soon as skillful horticulturists are encouraged to produce them. Several hybrid walnuts of other species are figured and described by European horticulturists, but, so far as known, they are mainly accidental productions, and not the result of any direct effort of man; nature, in this instance, merely giving a hint of the possible, leaving us to avail ourselves of the lesson if we feel so inclined.

J. Le Conte, in a list of four hundred and fifty plants, collected by him on the island of New York (Manhattan), and published in the "Medical and Philosophical Register," Vol. II, 1812, mentions a hybrid walnut among the number. Dr. John Torrey, in "Catalogue of Plants," etc., 1819, refers to this tree under the name of Juglans hybrida, and says that it is growing near where Eighth avenue intersects the road called Lake Tours, about three miles from the city, and is a large tree. This specimen probably disappeared long ago, and we have no means now of determining its origin or between what two species it was a hybrid.

Recently Prof. C. S. Sargent has discovered other hybrid walnuts in the neighborhood of Boston, and figured and described one in Garden and Forest for Oct. 31, 1894. He says:

"My attention was first called to the fact by observing that a tree which I had supposed was a so-called English walnut (Juglans regia), in the grounds connected with the Episcopal school of Harvard college, at Cambridge, was not injured by the cold of the severest winters, although Juglans regia generally suffers from cold here, and rarely grows to a large size. This individual is really a noble tree; the trunk forks, about five feet above the surface of the ground, into two limbs, and girths, at the point where its diameter is smallest, fifteen feet and two inches. The divisions of the trunk spread slightly and form a wide, round-topped head of pendulous branches of unusual symmetry and beauty, and probably sixty to seventy feet high. A closer examination of this tree showed that it was hardly to be distinguished from Juglans regia in habit, in the character of the bark, or in the form and coloring of the leaves, and that the oblong nut, with its thick shell deeply sculptured into narrow ridges, was the slightly modified nut of our native butternut, Juglans regia. Two other trees with the same peculiarities were afterwards found. One is a large, wide-spreading specimen, with a trunk diameter of four feet three inches about two feet above the surface of the ground, and just below the point where it divides into three large limbs. This is on the grounds of Mr. Eben Bacon of Jamaica Plain, and is supposed to have been planted between fifty and sixty years ago. The other has a tall, straight trunk, with a diameter of three feet one inch at three feet above the surface of the ground, and is growing on a farm near Houghton's Pond, in Milton, at the base of the southeastern slope of the Blue Hills."

That there should be hybrid walnuts is nothing strange or wonderful, and we often marvel that there should be so few of them in regions where two or more species are growing in close proximity in the same forest, or elsewhere, but from whence came these specimens in Massachusetts is somewhat of a mystery. We may safely conclude, however, that the hybridizing did not occur there, but somewhere else, and either the nuts or small seedling trees were introduced and planted where these hybrid specimens are now growing. It is possible that they are descendants of the old hybrid walnut tree of New York city, mentioned by Le Conte and Dr. Torrey, some one having sent nuts or seedlings to friends in Massachusetts, and the three trees described by Prof. Sargent are merely those which have survived until the present day, these retaining the hybrid characteristics of their parent. These hybrids may or may not possess any special economic value, but they are of considerable scientific interest, and for this reason alone are well worthy of careful preservation and extensive propagation.

Butternut Sugar.—It has often been claimed that sugar can be made from the native butternut tree, and while it is true that the sweetish sap flows readily from wounds made in this tree in early spring, the amount and quality of sugar to be obtained from it is scarcely worthy of serious attention. In my boyhood days butternut syrup and sugar were considered as "sticky jokes" of the sugar camp.

[FIG. 77]. FLOWERING BRANCH OF HYBRID WALNUT.
J. regia × J. Californica.

Hybrids in California.—Mrs. Ninetta Eames, writing, in the American Agriculturist, of new varieties of walnuts in California, refers to certain species and varieties growing in that State, as follows:

"On one of the avenues in Santa Rosa there are some dozen or so ornamental shade trees, which invariably attract the passers. It is not only that they are uncommonly beautiful, but that there is something unfamiliar about them. One unhesitatingly pronounces them 'walnuts,' from their unmistakable likeness to both the English walnut and the native species found growing along the streams of middle and southern California. They are, in fact, a cross between the Juglans regia and J. Californica, the wild black walnut of this State. In its appearance, this magnificent hybrid is nicely balanced between both parents, but it is superior to either of them in beauty and luxuriance of foliage, and in its phenomenal growth. There is, indeed, but one tree, the eucalyptus, that grows more rapidly. In speaking of this quality in the new walnut, Mr. Luther Burbank says: 'It often excels the combined growth of both parents, adding twelve to sixteen feet to its hight in one year. Given like conditions, a budded six-year-old hybrid is twice as large as a black walnut at twenty years of age.'

[FIG. 78]. HYBRID WALNUT. J. nigra × J. Californica.

[FIG. 79]. HYBRID WALNUT, SHELL REMOVED.
J. nigra × J. Californica.

"The clean cut, bright green leaves make a remarkable showing, being all the way from two feet to a yard in length, and of graceful, drooping habit (Fig. 77). They are sweet-scented, too,—a delightful fragrance, resembling that of June apples. Another admirable feature of this hybrid walnut is its smooth, grayish bark, with white marblings not unlike the Eastern sugar maple. The wood is compact, with lustrous, satiny grain, and takes an elegant polish, which gives it unmistakable commercial value. Like the majority of hybrids, though blossoming freely it yields a scant crop of nuts, one or two annually on a single tree, and this only after twelve years of persistent barrenness. The seed, when planted, goes back to its parent distinctiveness,—one-half turning out to be English walnuts and the other half black walnuts,—the true hybrid being only reproduced by grafting on a thrifty young Juglans Californica.

"Another handsome novelty in shade trees, is a hybrid from the Juglans nigra, or well-known Eastern black walnut, and J. Californica (Figs. 78 and 79). It makes a charming ornamental tree, and bears, in its season, a prolific crop of unusually large nuts, which have little value except in the eyes of school children. Several of these hybrids are growing in Santa Rosa, and present an interesting study to the pomologist.

[FIG. 80]. JUGLANS SIEBOLDIANA RACEME.

"A still more unique species of the walnut genus is the Juglans Sieboldiana, a Japanese walnut which grows abundantly in the mountainous districts of the island of Yesso, and also in the more southern divisions of the empire. Several of these remarkable trees are to be found in the Kew gardens, but only one specimen is said to be growing in America, and this has recently come into profuse bearing on the Burbank experimental farm, eight miles from Santa Rosa, California. According to good authority, this Japanese walnut not only attains its greatest perfection in this favored climate, but it thrives equally well in countries too cold for the common walnut, J. regia. In its wild state in Japan, the Juglans Sieboldiana (whose curious raceme of nuts is shown in Fig. 80) makes a wide-spreading tree about fifty feet in hight, with pale, furrowed bark; nuts an inch and a half long, with a diameter one-third less, and a kernel having much the flavor of the common walnut. The tree bearing so thriftily on California soil, suggests its possible value as a marketable nut, while it already furnishes a remarkable addition to horticultural interests."

Juglans nigra, Linn. Black Walnut.—Leaflets eleven to seventeen, rarely more; ovate-lanceolate, smooth above, moderately pubescent beneath, pointed, somewhat heart-shaped at the base; leaf-stalks slightly downy, usually of a pale purplish color early in the season, especially on young trees; fruit large, mostly globose (Fig. 81); husk thin, roughly dotted; shell thick, hard, deeply and unevenly corrugated with rough, sharp ridges and points (Fig. 82); kernel large, sweet, but usually with a strong, rather rank taste, but less oily than the butternut. Trees grow to an immense size, with deeply furrowed bark; wood dark colored, valuable for cabinet work, inside finishing, gun stocks, etc. Common in deep, rich soils, from western Massachusetts west to southern Minnesota, and southward to Florida. Most abundant west of the Alleghany mountains, and especially in the rich valleys of the Western States distant from railroads and water communication; elsewhere the trees have long since been cut for their timber. I have only one synonym to record, and this is scarcely worthy of notice, viz.: Wallia nigra. (Alefeld in "Bonplandia," 1861.)

[FIG. 81]. BLACK WALNUT IN HUSK.

[FIG. 82]. JUGLANS NIGRA, HUSK REMOVED.

Varieties of the Black Walnut.—As with the butternut, there are no varieties of the black walnut in cultivation; at least, none propagated by means which will insure the perpetuation of their varietal characteristics. It is true that there are plenty of wild varieties to be found, these varying widely in size and form, and somewhat in thickness of their shell, as well as the ease with which the kernels may be extracted, but none of these have been perpetuated by artificial means. Among the earliest varieties recognized by botanists, one was called Oblong Black Walnut, Juglans nigra oblonga, by Miller, 1754, and perhaps in earlier editions of the "Gardener's Dictionary." He says this is from Virginia, and only a variety of the common black walnut. Marshall, in 1785, describes this "black oblong fruited walnut," and adds: "There are, perhaps, some other varieties." These oblong, or, more correctly speaking, oval nuts, often sharp-pointed at both ends, are rather plentiful at this time. There are rarely any considerable number of bushels reaching market from Virginia and adjacent States, among which these oval or oblong nuts cannot be found. I have a number before me measuring from one inch to one and a quarter in diameter, and from one and a half to nearly two inches in length. Other varieties found, perhaps, in the same lot, are broader than long, or one and seven-eighths inches broad, by one and one-half in vertical diameter. These measurements are of the cleaned shell, after the husks have been removed.

For several years a "thin-shelled black walnut" has been offered by at least two nurserymen, in whose catalogues they are described as "with unusually thin shells, the kernels coming out whole." I have endeavored to ascertain the origin of this variety, but failed, for both of the nursery firms who advertised the frees for sale admit that they do not know from whom they obtained the nuts planted, or where the original tree is growing. As the trees offered are only seedlings, there is no certainty that they will produce nuts with "thin shells." We can safely drop this supposed variety from the list until something definite is known about it.

Juglans Californica, Watson. California Walnut.—Leaflets in from five to eight pairs, more or less downy, but sometimes smooth, oblong-lanceolate, sharp-pointed, narrowing upward from near the base, two to two and a half inches long. Male catkins much larger than in our Eastern species, or from four to eight inches, often in pairs. Fruit round, slightly compressed, three-fourths to one inch and a quarter in diameter; husk thin, slightly dotted or roughened; shell dark brown, very faintly sculptured (Fig. 83), almost smooth, thick, the kernel filling two broad cavities upon each side; edible and fairly good. A tree or large shrub in the vicinity of San Francisco and along the Sacramento (where it is sometimes cultivated), growing to the hight of forty to sixty feet, and two to four feet in diameter; ranging southward to Santa Barbara, and eastward through southern Arizona to New Mexico and Sonora (Thurber, "Botany of California"). This species has been considered by some botanists as only a variety of the next, or Juglans rupestris, var. Major, Torrey. Scarcely hardy in the latitude of New York city, except an occasional seedling from nuts gathered along the northern limits of the species, or from the cooler elevated regions of the Pacific slope. It is of no special value, only adding one more edible nut tree to the list.

[FIG. 83]. JUGLANS CALIFORNICA.

[FIG. 84]. JUGLANS RUPESTRIS, SHOWING SMALL KERNEL.

Juglans Rupestris, Engelmann. Texas Walnut. New Mexico Walnut.—Leaflets thirteen to twenty-five, smooth, bright green, small, narrow, and long-pointed; male catkins short, or about two inches long, and quite slender; fruit round or oblate; husk thin, nearly smooth; nut small, one-half to three-fourths of an inch in diameter; shell very thick, rather deeply furrowed, the narrow grooves on the greater part continuous from base to apex, the broad edges of the ridges smooth, not jagged as in the butternut and black walnut. Kernel sweet and good, but so small (Fig. 84) as not to be worth the trouble of extracting. A small and neat tree twenty to forty feet high, native of the bottom lands of the Colorado in Texas, and throughout the western part of the State, extending through southern and central New Mexico to Arizona. In New Mexico it reaches an elevation of seven or eight thousand feet, though the climate is often severe, the temperature dropping to zero and below during the winter. Seedlings raised from nuts obtained near the northern limits of this species in Texas and New Mexico would probably be hardy in most of the Northern States, but they are scarcely worth cultivating for their nuts, owing to the small size and thick shell; but as the trees are neat and graceful they are worthy of a place among other useful and ornamental kinds. An occasional bearing tree of this Texas walnut may be seen in the gardens and parks of the Eastern States, and probably in some of the Western, but I have no direct information in regard to their locations or age.

Synonyms:

Juglans rupestris, Torrey.
Juglans Californica, Watson, Bot. California.

[Oriental Walnuts.]—How few or many species of the walnut are indigenous to China, Korea, Japan and other Oriental countries it would be very difficult to determine, with our present limited knowledge of the forests of that part of the world. The few botanists who have had opportunities of studying the flora of those regions do not agree as to names or number of species of the genus. Loureiro, in his "Flora Cochinchinensis" (1788), names three species as indigenous to China, viz.: Juglans regia in the northern part, but this is now considered very doubtful; Juglans Camirium, Rhumphius, a medium-sized, heart-shaped nut, the trees found in the forests, and also under cultivation; Juglans Catappa, a large forest tree in the Cochin China mountains, with oblong, edible nuts, with husk and shell of nuts of a reddish color. Many years later Siebold describes a Japan walnut under the name of Juglans Japonica, and still later the Russian botanist, Maxiomowicz, renames this, in honor of Siebold, Juglans Sieboldiana, and describes another native of Japan as Juglans cordiformis. But prior to any of the authors named, Thunberg had described a Japan walnut under the name of Juglans nigra, probably the same as Loureiro's species, with reddish husk, but as this name had already been given to an American species it had to be dropped. Maxiomowicz also describes what he supposed to be a distinct species, found in the forests of Mandshuria under the name of J. Mandshurica (1872), but it is doubtful if it is anything more than one of the many wild forms of the species found widely distributed over eastern Asia. The red or black fruited walnut of Loureiro (J. Catappa), and Siebold's black walnut (J. nigra), are probably the same as the Ailantus-leaved (J. ailantifolia), recently described in Nicholson's "Dictionary of Gardening," London, Eng., 1884, the origin of which is said to be uncertain. It is Juglans Mandshurica, Maxim, in Alphonse Lavallée's "Catalogue of Arboretum Segrezianum." As described in this work, the young fruit is violet-red, and produced in long pendulous clusters, the latter being one of the marked characteristics of these Oriental walnuts. But whether we admit that there is but one or a dozen species of these Eastern walnuts, it cannot be of any special interest to the practical nut culturist, for to him their economic and commercial value is of more importance than scientific nomenclature.

[FIG. 85]. JUGLANS SIEBOLDIANA.

Up to the present time we have only succeeded in obtaining two species of these walnuts, or perhaps only one species and one variety; but we certainly have two distinct forms, both coming from Japan, and distributed under the names given them by Maxiomowicz, viz.:

Juglans Sieboldiana (Siebold Walnut).—Leaflets sessile, usually fifteen, five to seven inches long, oblong-pointed, thin, soft, downy, serratures very shallow, pale green above and somewhat lighter beneath; footstalks densely clothed with clammy hairs; fruit in long pendulous clusters of a half dozen to a dozen, one and a half inches or more long by a little more than one inch broad in the middle; husk thin, downy or clammy; nut somewhat compressed, the point usually bending to one side; shell smooth, with two shallow grooves from base upward on the sides opposite to the sharp, prominent ridges at the seams of the two lobes, the shell ending in a strong, sharp point (Fig. 85). The shell is very hard and thick; the kernel small, sweet, oily, resembling in taste our common butternut; tree a rapid and stocky grower, the coarse shoots and large leaves resembling those of the Ailantus tree at first, but soon spreading branches appear, forming an open, roundish head. The seedlings, as raised here, are abundantly supplied with small fibrous roots, which insures transplanting with safety. Apparently perfectly hardy in our Northern States, as I have heard no complaints of winter-killing of the young trees, although they are now widely distributed and in considerable numbers, but none, so far as I have been able to learn, have reached a bearing age here in the North.

Mr. P. C. Berckmans, of Augusta, Ga., in writing me under date of Dec. 3, 1894, says:

"Last year we fruited Juglans Sieboldiana trees four years from the seed. Fruit was produced in long clusters, and trees exceedingly ornamental, but this year these same trees were killed to the ground on the 26th of March, after they had set a crop of fruit and made a young growth of more than twelve inches. This untimely frost may not happen again in years, but it goes to show that many varieties of trees which are considered hardy further north, are sometimes destroyed here by spring frosts."

As these Japanese and Chinese walnuts are natives of cold climates they may be better adapted to the Northern than Southern States, but there is no locality entirely exempt from late spring frosts, as most farmers and fruit growers learned to their cost the past season. There can be little doubt of this species of walnut being the one described by Rhumphius under the name of J. Camirium, and more fully later by Loureiro, as already noted; but having come to us from Japan as Siebold's walnut, this name will answer as well as any other, even if it is not the proper one.

[FIG. 86]. JUGLANS CORDIFORMIS.

Juglans cordiformis, Maxim.—In foliage and growth of tree this is almost, if not absolutely, identical with the last; the difference observed is in the nuts, which are also produced in pendulous clusters. The form of the nut is almost round (Fig. 86), rather blunt-pointed, but the shell is deeply and unevenly furrowed, and indented somewhat like our black walnut; the ridges, however, are not as sharp. The specimens I have received from various sources are not as large as the Siebold, and the shell not quite as thick, but the kernel is small. I may note here that there appears to be some confusion in regard to this variety or species, for in several nurserymen's catalogues this form of nut is figured as Siebold's, and the one that I have described under that name is called Cordiformis. The specimens received from California, Japan, and also from Mr. Berckmans, correspond with the names here given, but further investigations may show that they should be reversed. The one I have received as Cordiformis is, doubtless, the nut described by Loureiro as J. Catappa, as an ovate-oblong nut, with a fibrous, leathery, reddish husk.

While I do not suppose that these Oriental walnuts will ever become of any considerable commercial value, they are worth planting for shade and ornamental trees. They are rather precocious, coming into bearing at an early age, and the nuts are not only edible, but will always be an acceptable addition to the unimportant although agreeable household supplies.

Persian Walnuts. Juglans regia, Linn. Royal Walnut, Madeira Nut, English Walnut, French Walnut, Chile Walnut, etc.—Leaflets five to nine, oval, smooth, pointed, slightly serrate; fruit round or slightly oval; husk thin, green, of a leathery texture, becoming brittle and cleaving from the nut when ripe and dry; nut roundish-oval, smallest at the top; shell smooth, with slight indentations, thin, two-valved, readily parting at the seams; kernel large, wrinkled and corrugated, the two lobes separated below with a thin, papery partition, but united at the top; sweet, oily, and generally esteemed.

[FIG. 87]. SMALL FRUITED WALNUT.

This species has been in cultivation many centuries, and in different countries and climates, and under such variable conditions that many of the varieties have departed widely from the normal type. There are now an almost innumerable number of varieties, varying greatly in size and form. Some are not larger than a good-sized pea, as seen in the "Small Fruited Walnut" (Fig. 87), while others are nearly as large as a man's fist, as in the thick-shelled or "Gibbous Walnut" (Fig. 92), while in others the nut is greatly elongated, as in the "Barthere Walnut" (Fig. 88), and hundreds of other intermediate forms. There are also varieties that bloom early in spring, others late. Some are very hardy, others quite tender in cold climates. There are also dwarf and tall-growing, as well as the precocious and tardy fruiting varieties. But very few of these have ever been cultivated in our Eastern States, consequently little is known of their value here; but more may be in the near future, when our horticulturists and farmers begin to plant nut trees as freely as they have other kinds, or are awakened to the fact that such trees can be made a source of pleasure and profit.

Here in the Northern States our main dependence for hardy and productive trees of this species will be upon seedlings or cions from those acclimated specimens which have already been thoroughly tested and found to be both hardy and prolific. There are plenty of these, as I have stated elsewhere, and they are well worthy of attention and multiplication until something better is produced or discovered. In the meantime, the most promising European varieties could be imported and tested, although it is not probable that those originating in southern France and Italy would be of much value for planting in the latitude of New York city or north of it, but south of this line the chances of success would be somewhat greater; and to escape injury from late spring frosts, the more elevated regions are preferable to the lower and warmer anywhere in the Southern States. In anticipation of the question being asked, I will say that, at present, I do not know of any nurseryman in the Eastern States who propagates or imports named varieties of walnuts for sale. Of course, seedlings of these are offered, but it is well known that there is but a remote chance of these coming true from seed. Even the little dwarf French walnut Præparturiens, or Early Prolific, cannot be depended upon to produce dwarf or early bearing trees beyond the first generation from the nut, and these must be the product of grafted trees, to insure this much. The following list contains the names of only a few of the most noted varieties, the greater part having originated in Europe.

Ailantus-leaved walnut. See [Oriental walnuts].

[FIG. 88]. BARTHERE WALNUT.

[FIG. 89]. CHABERTE.

[FIG. 90]. CHILE WALNUT.

Barthere walnuts. See Fig. 88.—A very long nut, pointed at both ends. Shell thin; kernel large and of excellent flavor. Named after M. Barthere, a horticulturist of Toulouse, France, who discovered it growing among a number of other trees; consequently, its origin is a mystery. M. Barthere says that it is very productive, and even the seedlings of this variety begin to bear very early.

Chaberte.—An old standard French variety, of an oval shape; medium size, with very full and rich flavored kernel (Fig. 89). The tree buds and blooms late, therefore especially valuable in localities where late spring frosts are likely to occur.

Chile walnut.—This name is given, in a general way, to all the walnuts received in our markets from South America. The nuts are usually of good size, with a dark grayish shell; thin but firm, with plump kernels of excellent flavor. These nuts arrive in February and March. Many of the Chile walnuts have three valves (Fig. 90), instead of the normal two. Such freaks are occasionally found among the European varieties, also in the native hickories, but these tri-valved nuts appear to be very abundant among the Chile walnuts.

Cluster walnut. Racemosa or Spicata.—Described by Mr. Gillet as a variety of the Persian walnut, producing medium, thin-shelled nuts in long clusters of from eight to twenty-eight. He also says that he introduced it into this country, but from whence we are not informed. Lavellée (1877) records it as a variety of J. regia, under the name of racemosa, giving its synonym as Juglans Californica of the horticulturists. I have not found it mentioned elsewhere.

[FIG. 91]. CUT-LEAVED WALNUT.

Cut-leaved walnut.—A variety with deeply cut leaves; very ornamental, as seen in Fig. 91. Nuts quite small, but of good quality.

Franquette.—Another old standard French variety, with large, elongated-oval nuts with a distinct point. Shell thin; kernel large, and of rich flavor. The tree blooms late; valuable for planting in the South.

Gant or Bijou walnut.—A remarkable variety on account of its extraordinary size. The shell is thin, with rather deep furrows, those of the largest size being made into ladies' companions, where to stow away gloves or handkerchiefs, hence the name "Gant" walnut. The kernel, though, does not correspond to the size of the shell (Gillet).

Gibbous walnut (Fig. 92).—This is a very large variety, supposed to be a hybrid, raised in France many years ago. It is of little value, as the shell is very thick and kernel small. Valuable mainly for its immense size.

[FIG. 92]. GIBBOUS WALNUT.

Kaghazi.—This is supposed to be a variety of the Persian walnut, of fair size, with a very thin shell. The tree blooms very late in spring, and for this reason is recommended for localities where there is danger from injury by frost. The tree is said to be a very rapid grower, and much more hardy than the general run of varieties of this species. I have been unable to learn its origin, but it has been planted quite extensively in California, and some of our Eastern nurserymen are offering the seedling trees for sale, but whether they will possess the merits of the original or not must be determined by experience.

Large-fruited Præparturiens.—A sub-variety of the Præparturiens, originating with Mr. Felix Gillet of California.

Late Præparturiens.—Also originated with Mr. Gillet. Valuable because the trees bloom late in spring. Nuts described as of medium size, but with full kernels of excellent quality.

Mayette.—Very large (Fig. 93), with a light-colored shell of moderate thickness. Kernel plump, readily extracted whole, as shown in Fig. 94, sweet, and a rich, nutty flavor. Tree blooms late and is very productive. An old and standard French variety.

[FIG. 93]. MAYETTE.

[FIG. 94]. KERNEL OF WALNUT.

[FIG. 95]. J. REGIA OCTOGONA.

[FIG. 96]. CROSS SECTION.

Mesange or Paper-shell.—This nut has the thinnest shell of any variety known; it derives its name of Mesange from a little lark of that name, that goes to the kernel through the tender shell. Tree very productive, and the kernel quite rich in oil. We do not, however, recommend the growing of this variety for market, on account of the thinness of the shell, which breaks off too easily in handling the nuts, or even when they drop on the ground (Felix Gillet).

Meylan Walnut.—A French variety that originated near the little village of Meylan, in the vicinity of which it is quite extensively cultivated for home use and export.

Octogona.—Of uncertain origin, but very much resembles one of the Oriental species in the form and sculpture of the shell (Fig. 95). The shell is also very thick, as shown in the cross section (Fig. 96). Of no special value.

Parisienne Walnut.—Although this was named for the city of Paris it did not originate there, but in the South of France. It is a large and rather broad variety, with a firm but thin shell (Fig. 97) and excellent flavored kernel. It is reported that this variety succeeds in California, also in the South wherever tried. The trees leaf out late in spring and are rarely injured by frosts, and are remarkably productive.

Præparturiens. Precocious Dwarf Prolific.—A French variety of a dwarf habit, and the plants noted for bearing when very young. A correspondent of The Garden (London, Eng.), referring to this variety some years ago, says:

"It is precocious on account of the singular and exceptional fact that it is born almost an adult; in fact, it is nothing uncommon to see a tree in its third year bearing excellent fruit."

He does not say, however, whether he refers to seedlings or grafted plants, but we may presume the latter or those raised from layers, for cultivators who have experimented with seedlings have found that they possess a strong tendency to revert to the original or tree form. This may not show itself very strongly in the first generation if the nuts are obtained from grafted trees of some age, but in the second and third generation the early-fruiting and dwarf are usually entirely lost. The only certain way of securing the true variety is by grafting or layering, but it is to be feared that very few trees propagated by these modes are in cultivation, at least in the Eastern States, although nurserymen have been offering Præparturiens walnut trees in their catalogues during the past fifty years. In one now before me, published in New York city in 1844, trees of this walnut are offered at one dollar each, or about what is charged for seedlings at the present time. As nothing is said in the catalogues about the mode of propagation, we infer that they are seedlings, as grafted trees would be worth more than one dollar. The nuts of this dwarf walnut are of medium size, thin-shelled and of excellent flavor; valuable for gardens of limited extent.

Serotina. Late Walnut, St. John Walnut.—A very peculiar sort, inasmuch as it is the latest of all to bud and bloom in spring, and yet it pushes forward so rapidly that the nuts are ripe with others in the fall. They are of medium size (Fig. 98), with a rather hard shell, but the kernel is plump and good flavored. The tree is very productive, and sure to escape late spring frosts.

[FIG. 97]. PARISIENNE.

[FIG. 98]. SEROTINA OR ST. JOHN.

Vilmorin.—This is claimed to be a hybrid between some variety of J. regia and our native black walnut, J. nigra. Scarcely known outside of France.

Vourey.—A new and splendid variety raised near Vourey, a small town in southeast France. It has much the same shape and qualities of the Parisienne walnut (Gillet).

Variegated walnut.—A handsome variety, with young branches covered with dark-green bark spotted with gray, and often striped longitudinally with yellow. The leaves resemble those of the common walnut; the fruit is of a light yellowish-green streaked with darker green, and reminds one closely of certain varieties of pears which, in common with this variety, frequently have their young branches striped in a similar manner. Propagated by grafting or layers. (The Garden.)

Weeping walnut.—A tree with pendulous twigs and branches. Quite ornamental, but not especially valuable for its fruit. Hardy in England.

In addition to those described, there are a large number of varieties, which may be worth importing and testing in this country, by those who may feel inclined to make experiments with these nuts. Probably some of those highly extolled by earlier writers are now lost, but this cannot be determined until a careful search through the old European gardens has been made.

Among the early-fruiting or precocious varieties we find an account of one raised by Anthony Carlisle, of England, as recorded in a paper read at a meeting of the Horticultural Society of London, March 3, 1812. Mr. Carlisle planted six nuts in March, 1802, these having been received from Mr. Thomas Wedgewood of Blandford. Six years later, or in 1808, one of the seedlings bore and matured ten walnuts, and the next season (1809) upwards of fifty, and in 1810 one hundred and twelve, the tree at that age being nineteen feet seven and one-half inches high. Another variety, under the name of Highflyer walnut, is described in the Transactions of the same society, Vol. IV, 1822, p. 517. The nuts sent to the society were grown in the town of Thetford, and are described as a long oval, with a shell so very thin that the slightest pressure of the fingers crushes it. I find that this Highflyer walnut is mentioned in the recently published "Dictionary of Gardening," but whether obtainable in English nurseries or not we are left in doubt.

I refer to these English varieties mainly to show that some of the very best and thinnest-shelled walnuts have been grown in cool climates, and are not confined entirely to the warm or semi-tropical, as many persons seem to suppose and even claim to be the fact. It is principally from these English walnuts, as they are usually termed, that our hardy old-bearing trees, referred to elsewhere, have been produced, and, doubtless, many more will be, when we begin to pay some attention to this very valuable nut. It is also quite likely that when our horticulturists look about for choice acclimated varieties for propagation, they will be found right here in the grounds of next-door neighbors, and there may be no necessity of sending to Europe or elsewhere for either nuts or trees.

At present there is much confusion and uncertainty in regard to the identity and nomenclature of both species and varieties of the walnut, and it must remain so until they are collected from all countries and climes, of which they are either native or into which they have been introduced, and when so collected, and fruiting specimens produce, it will not be difficult to classify and determine their synonyms. This will be an undertaking scarcely to be expected of the individual nut culturist, but is within the legitimate line of the arboretum, and of public botanical gardens located in both cold and warm climates, thereby securing a division of labor, and at the same time avoiding the uncertainty of trying to produce practical results under uncongenial conditions and surroundings.

Husking Walnuts.—The husks of nearly all the varieties of the Persian and Oriental walnuts part from their shells freely when fully ripened and dried, but in a few varieties the husks are rather persistent, requiring force and friction for their removal. This may be accomplished by placing them in bags and shaking, or in barrels and rolling, until the nuts are scraped clean. But the better way, where there is any considerable quantity of nuts to be operated upon, is to take a strong barrel or cask, and so arrange it on standards that it can be rapidly revolved with a crank attached to one end. Of course, the cask must have its two heads left in place, and an opening made in the side to admit the nuts and remove them when cleaned. Almost any man handy with tools can make such a cleaner and polisher in a few hours, and if stored in a dry place it will last for several years. With butternuts and black walnuts the husks are much tougher, and they should be thrown into heaps in the open air, and turned over occasionally until the husks become softened sufficiently to permit of their removal, in case they are to be sent to market. Ordinary threshing machines may be used for cleaning the husks from black walnuts, by removing about one-half the teeth, or enough to allow the nuts to pass through without breaking their shells.

Most of the hickories drop from the husk, leaving the nut clean; but in some varieties of the pecan the inner part of the husk adheres rather tenaciously, and they sell better if cleaned; besides, some have rather rough and thick shells, and a little scraping and polishing adds much to their appearance. The revolving cask, either worked by hand or other power, is an excellent implement for preparing these nuts for market, and if the husk is very persistent, a little dry sand thrown in will aid in cleaning and polishing. Sometimes these nuts are subjected to what is called the soapstone polish, leaving the shells very smooth, with a greasy feel. The French walnuts, which are extensively imported under the general name of Grenoble walnuts, are usually bleached with sulphur before they are shipped, and while this adds nothing to the quality of the kernel, the sulphur is an excellent insecticide and fungicide, and may be of some use on that account; but otherwise it is likely to be more injurious than beneficial. As bleaching both walnuts and almonds is often insisted upon by dealers, I give the process suggested by Director Hilgard, of the California Agricultural Experiment Station, which he believes will prove more satisfactory than the one usually employed, and is as follows:

"The nuts, placed in small baskets (such as the Chinese use for carrying), are dipped for about five minutes in a solution containing to every fifty gallons of water six pounds of bleaching powder and twelve pounds of sal soda. They are then rinsed with a hose, and after draining, again dipped into another solution containing one per cent of bisulphite of lime; after the nuts have assumed the desired tint, they are again rinsed with water and then dried. Instead of the second dipping, the nuts may be sulphured (fumigated) for ten or fifteen minutes. The cost of fifty gallons of chlorine dip will be about forty cents; the same bulk of the bisulphite dip, probably considerably less. The time occupied in handling one batch (two dips) is from twelve to fifteen minutes."

[FIG. 99]. THE CATERPILLAR.

[FIG. 100]. THE REGAL WALNUT MOTH—CITHERONIA REGALIS.

Insect Enemies.—The walnut is attacked by the same kinds of insects that infest the hickories, with, perhaps, a few exceptions; as, for instance, the bark beetles and the nut weevils. The leaves appear to be more or less acceptable food for the caterpillars that feed on the hickories, and the same insecticides and means employed for destroying these pests on one will answer for the other.

The caterpillars of some of the smaller kinds of moths are, as a rule, far more destructive to the leaves than the larger, and their ravages often escape notice until it is too late for the use of preventives, or for their destruction with insecticides.

Ever since I became connected with the New York city press, some thirty odd years ago, scarcely a season has passed during which one or more specimens of the Regal walnut caterpillar (Citheronia regalis), shown in Fig. 99, have not been received from some correspondent who had found them crawling down the stem or on the ground near a walnut tree. Such a large caterpillar would naturally attract the attention of almost any person, but to the timid its appearance is exceedingly ferocious and repulsive, while to the entomologist it is a beautiful and interesting creature, and far more likely to be handled with care than injured. This caterpillar is of a green color, and transversely banded across each of the rings with pale blue. The head and legs are of an orange color, also the long spine or horns, with the points tipped with black. It is certainly very formidable in appearance, but perfectly harmless, and may be handled with impunity. The parent moth (Fig. 100) has fore wings of an olive color, ornamented with small yellow spots and veined with red lines. The hind wings are orange-red, with two large irregular yellow patches before, and a row of wedge-shaped olive colored spots between the veins behind. Although this insect appears to be widely distributed over the country, and the caterpillars feed on the walnuts and occasionally on the hickory, it has never been known to be sufficiently numerous to attract any special attention.

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CHAPTER IX.

MISCELLANEOUS NUTS—EDIBLE AND OTHERWISE.

In the following list of plants there are a few that in no way can be considered as related to the true nut-bearing trees and shrubs; but as the word "nut" has been attached as a prefix or affix in commerce, or elsewhere, they are admitted, even if for no other purpose than to designate their true position in the vegetable kingdom. For convenience, they are recorded in alphabetical order, the most familiar of the common names—where there are more than one—being given precedence, the botanical or scientific following, with a brief description, as my limited space will not permit of anything more extended.

It is not claimed that this catalogue of nuts is complete, but it is probably as near it as any heretofore compiled and published, and it may serve as the basis for a better and more extended one at some future time.

Acorn, or oak nut.—The fruit of the oak, Quercus (Cupuliferæ), monœcious, evergreen and deciduous trees and shrubs, with alternate and simple straight-veined leaves. A very large genus, of about two hundred and fifty species, mainly in the temperate region of the northern hemisphere. There are some forty species native of the United States. The nuts are, on the whole, rather too harsh and bitter flavored to be esteemed or considered edible by civilized nations at the present day, but in former times some of the oak nuts were often an important article among the garnered food of the household. They were used—and are still, in some countries—boiled, roasted, and even ground and made into bread and cakes. They have also been used as a substitute for coffee, and for malt in making beer. Strabo says that in the mountains of Spain the inhabitants ground their acorns into meal, and Pliny affirms that in his time acorns were brought to the table with the dessert, in Spain. Every student of English history is well aware of the importance of the acorn, not only as food for man, in Great Britain, in the time of the Druids, and later, but also for feeding swine, deer, and other wild and domesticated animals. But with the advance of civilization and the production of better food, the oak nut ceased to be classed among the important culinary supplies. There are, however, a few species of the oak yielding nuts fairly edible in their raw state, and these are much improved by roasting. The best of those among our native species are to be found in the varieties of the white oaks of the North, and in the evergreen (Quercus virens) of the Southern States. But with so many far superior species of edible nuts, it is very doubtful if any of the oaks will ever be cultivated for their fruit.

[Australian chestnut.]—The seeds of a large tree, native of Australia, the Castanospermum australe, the name of the genus being derived from Kastanon, chestnut, and sperma, a seed, because the seeds resemble, in size and taste, the common chestnut. But the tree belongs to the bean family (Leguminosæ), and the seeds are produced in large, long pods. They are about an inch and a half broad, somewhat flattened, and of the color of a chestnut when ripe. They are roasted and eaten by the natives, but are rather unpalatable to those who have been accustomed to something better in the way of edible nuts. These seeds are also known as "Moreton Bay chestnuts."

[Australian hazelnut.]—The fruit of Macadamia ternifolia (Proteaceæ). There are two species, both evergreen trees or tall shrubs confined to eastern Australia. The fruit is a kind of drupe with a fleshy exterior, enclosing a hard shelled nut, not unlike a small walnut. The kernel, when mature, has a rich and agreeable flavor, much like but richer than the hazelnut, hence one of its local names, for it is also known as "Queensland nut." This nut tree would probably thrive in southern Florida, and in the warmer parts of California.

Ben nut.—Fruit of Moringa aptera (Moringeæ). Small, unarmed trees; only three species in the order, these inhabiting tropical Asia, northern Africa and the West Indies. The one producing the ben nuts grows from fifteen to twenty feet high, and is found in upper Egypt, Syria and Arabia. The seeds,—or nuts, as they are called,—are produced in capsules or seed-pods about a foot long, and while not edible, an oil is expressed from them which is largely used in the manufacture of perfumery, and known in commerce as ben oil. Another species, the M. pterygosperma, or winged-seeded Moringa, is known as the horse-radish tree, the bark of the roots being used as a substitute for horse-radish.

Betel nut or pinang.—The fruit of a lofty palm, Areca Catechu (Palmaceæ). A native of Cochin China, the Malayan Peninsula, and adjacent islands. A slender-stemmed palm, with regular pinnate leaves and long, narrow leaflets. The fruit is produced on an erect, fleshy spike, each fruit about the size of a hen's egg, with a thick, fibrous rind or husk, enclosing a hard nut somewhat like an ordinary nutmeg. These are used by being cut into small pieces or slices, then rolled up in a leaf of the betel pepper (Piper betel), a little lime sprinkled over it, and then chewed or held in the mouth, as practiced by those who use tobacco for chewing. This habit of chewing the betel nut is said to be almost universal among the Malayan races, all carrying a box containing the nut leaf and lime. These nuts are shipped in large quantities to countries where they do not grow, and the habit of chewing them has spread enormously, of late years, and is likely to increase, as it has with tobacco; and the effect upon the users is said to be very similar, although some authorities claim that the betel is the most injurious of the two, having a far more deleterious effect upon the teeth and gums. But this may be due to the use of the lime. Travelers in countries where these nuts are in common use tell wonderful tales about the invigorating effects of the betel, and how their assistants and followers are enabled, by its use, to perform the most exhausting labor for days at a time, which, without it, would be impossible. We have no doubt that the users of tobacco will claim just as much for this narcotic weed, and probably could produce as many trustworthy witnesses in support of it. The betel is, like tobacco, a narcotic stimulant, and causes giddiness in persons unaccustomed to it, excoriates the mouth, and is so burning that Western nations will be slow to adopt this Eastern habit.

Bladder nut.—A rather inappropriate name for the seed pods and small seeds of one of our common large deciduous shrubs, the Staphylea trifolia. It is sometimes planted for ornament. The small white flowers are produced in hanging racemes, succeeded by large bladdery pods, hence its common name.

[Brazil nut.]—The fruit of Bertholletia excelsa, a lofty tree of the myrtle family (Myrtaceæ). The tree attains a height of from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet, with stems three to four feet in diameter. The leaves are broad, smooth, and about two feet long, rather thick, and of the texture of leather. The fruit is produced mainly on the uppermost branches, and is globular, four to six inches in diameter, with a brittle husk on the outside, and within this a hard, tough, woody shell, fully one-half inch thick, containing a large number of the closely packed, three-sided, rough nuts, about an inch and a half to two inches or over in length, as seen in Fig. 101. The kernels are very white, solid and oily. When mature the fruit falls entire, and the natives of the country collect them, splitting the shells to obtain the nuts. An occasional entire fruit is sent to other countries, as a curiosity, or for the cabinet of some botanist. The Brazil nut is not only indigenous to Brazil, but also of Guiana, Venezuela (forming immense forests on the Orinoco, where they are called Juvia), and southward on the Rio Negra and in the valley of the Amazon. In fact, the supply appears to be inexhaustible; the only difficulty is in getting the nuts from the forests to some point where they can be shipped out of the country. The principal export is from Para, but there are many smaller cities and towns where a load of these nuts may be obtained on short notice. A very superior oil may be obtained from the nuts, by pressure, but the principal use for them is for desserts and confectionery. They are always abundant in our city markets.

[FIG. 101]. BRAZIL NUT.

Bread nut.—The fruit of a large tree, the Brosimum Alicastrum, of the bread fruit family (Artocarpaceæ), native of the West Indies, but best known in Jamaica. The botanical authorities disagree in regard to this species, some claiming that it is a large tree, with wood similar to mahogany; others that it is only a small shrub, only five or six feet high. It has lance-shaped leaves, male and female flowers in globular heads, and usually on separate trees. The fruit is about the size of a plum, containing one seed or nut, which is only edible after roasting.

Buffalo Nut.—See [Oil nut].

Butternut.—See [Souari nut].

Byzantium Nut.—See Filberts, [Chap. VI].

Candle Nuts.—A small evergreen tree, the Aleurites triloba of the spurgewort family (Euphorbiaceæ). It is a native of most warm countries of the East: India, Malay, southern Japan, and nearly all the islands of the Pacific ocean, and in some of these it is cultivated for the fruit, which is about two inches in diameter. In the center there is a hard nut, very oily, with the flavor of the walnut. The oil obtained from these nuts is in common use among the natives of the Polynesian islands. In the Hawaiian group the kernels are strung on a small, dry stick, which serves the purpose of a wick, and then one end lighted, as with an ordinary tallow or wax candle, hence probably the common name of candle nut. These nuts are said to be used in the same way in India. Large quantities of oil is also expressed from them and used for various purposes, and occasionally small quantities are exported to European countries.

Cape chestnut.—The name of a beautiful evergreen ornamental tree, native of south Africa, and recently introduced into European gardens from the Cape of Good Hope, hence its common, and its specific scientific name, Calodendron capense. It belongs to the Rue family (Rutaceæ). The flowers are red, produced in long terminal racemes, the tree growing about forty feet high, and said to be one of the finest trees of that part of Africa. It is now under trial in Florida. Why called a chestnut I have been unable to discover.

[FIG. 102]. THE CASHEW NUT.

Cashew nut.—A large shrub or small tree, native of the West Indies, and for this reason often referred to as the "Western Cashew," or Anacardium occidentale. It belongs to the Terebinth family (Anacardium), consequently is closely related to our native poison sumachs (Rhus). The tree is an evergreen, with entire feather-veined leaves; flowers of a reddish color, very small, sweet-scented, and produced in terminal panicles. The fruit is kidney-shaped, and borne on a fleshy receptacle, and when ripe of reddish or yellow color. The nut proper is enclosed in a leathery covering, consisting of two layers, between which is deposited a thick, caustic, oily substance, exceedingly acrid; but this is eliminated by heat, so that when the kernels are roasted they have a pleasant flavor and are highly esteemed for dessert. Some care is required in roasting these nuts, as the fumes given off during this operation cause inflammation of the eyes. The nuts also yield an excellent oil, very similar to the best olive oil. Although originally found only in the West Indies, this nut is now widely distributed throughout the tropical countries of the East; in fact, naturalized in all hot climates, and is also under trial in southern Florida.

Caucasian walnut. Winged walnut.—The winged fruit of Pterocarya fraxinifolia, also known as P. Caucasica of nurserymen's catalogues. It belongs to the walnut family (Juglandaceæ), and is a tree growing thirty to forty feet high, somewhat resembling the common ash (Fraxinus). It is a pretty, hardy, ornamental tree, thriving only in moist soils. Seeds on winged nuts produced in long, drooping racemes, but of no special value. Introduced into England from Caucasus in 1800, and now plentiful here in nurseries.

Chestnut.—See [Chapter V]; also [Horse-chestnut], and [Moreton Bay], [Tahiti] and [Water chestnuts].

Chocolate nut or bean.—The seeds of a small tropical tree, Theobroma Cacao, of the chocolate nut family (Sterculiaceæ). Indigenous to tropical America, but now cultivated more or less extensively in all hot climates. The tree grows from fifteen to twenty feet high, with long, pointed, smooth leaves. The flowers are small, yellow, and produced from the old wood of both stems and branches, succeeded by a pod-like fruit six to ten or more inches long, containing fifty to a hundred seeds, resembling beans more than they do nuts. When the fruit is ripe it is gathered, at which time the seeds are covered with a gum-like substance, and to remove this they are subjected to a slight fermentation, after which they are dried in the sun, this giving them their usual brown color. Chocolate nut trees are extensively cultivated in Brazil, New Grenada, Trinidad, and, in fact, throughout tropical America, and their cultivation is, upon the whole, very profitable, as the demand is almost unlimited.

Clearing nut.—This is an East India name for the seeds of Strychnos potatorum, a plant belonging to the well-known nux vomica family (Loganiaceæ). It is a small tree, native of India, the wood of which is used for various purposes. The fruit is about the size of a cherry, and contains one seed; this is dried, and used for clearing muddy water, this being effected by rubbing one of the little nuts around the sides of the vessel that is to be filled, after which the water is poured in, and then, through some unknown agency, all the foreign matter settles, leaving the liquid perfectly pure, clear and wholesome.

Cocoanut.—One of the most widely-known and largest of edible nuts; the product of Cocos nucifera, a lofty, tree-like palm (Palmæ or Palmaceæ). It is a native of tropical Africa, India, Malay, and of nearly all the islands of the Indian and Pacific oceans. It only thrives near the seacoast or where the sea breezes reach it, requiring no special care after the nuts and young plants once become established in a congenial soil. The coco palm grows from fifty to one hundred feet high, with pinnate leaves from ten to twenty feet long. The nuts are produced in clusters of a dozen or more, and when full grown are somewhat triangular and a foot long, the outer coat or husk composed of a tough fiber. The nuts, when cleaned of their husks, are too well known to call for a further description here. In countries where these nuts are plentiful, their contents form nearly the entire food of the natives, the milky fluid serving for drink, and the more solid parts as a substitute for meat and bread. The cocoa-nut utilized in more ways, and for a greater variety of purposes, than any other kind known, and it would require a volume to briefly enumerate them. Of recent years there have been plantations made of this nut on the coast of southern Florida, and one of the most extensive of these is by a man from New Jersey, but I have not heard from him of late, or seen any reports as to the results of his experiments. It is reported that there are about 250,000 cocoa-nut trees now growing in Florida.

Cocoanut, Double.—This is the fruit of another lofty palm, Lodoicea Sechellarum, and is usually considered the largest member of the order. It is a native of the Seychelles islands, in the Indian ocean. It is said to reach a hight of a hundred feet, with a stem two feet in diameter. The fruit is a large, oblong nut, with a rather thin rind or husk, and when this is removed the nut appears to be double, or two oblong nuts firmly united, a kind of twin formation, the entire nut weighing from thirty to forty pounds. These immense nuts are produced in bunches of eight to ten, the cluster sometimes weighing from three to four hundred pounds. It is supposed that these nuts require about ten years to grow and mature. They are useless as food, but the shells are manufactured into various useful articles by the natives, and they are also transported to other countries and valued as curiosities. There is a great demand for the leaves of this palm for making hats, baskets, etc., and as the trees have to be cut down to obtain them, they are becoming rather scarce.

[Cola nut], Kola nut or Goora nut.—The fruit of a small tree, native of the warmer parts of western Africa, and known to botanists as Cola acuminata, and of the Sterculiad family (Sterculiaceæ). In its native country it grows thirty to forty feet high. The leaves are oblong-elliptical, six to eight inches long, and pointed (acuminate), and from this it probably derived its specific name. The flowers are yellow, and produced in axillary racemes, and succeeded by simple bean-like pods, each containing several nut-like seeds, which the natives call cola or goora nuts. These nuts have long been an article of trade among the native tribes of Africa, they being valued for their supposed efficacy in allaying thirst, promoting digestion, giving strength, and preventing exhaustion during the performance of hard manual labor. This tree was early introduced into the West Indies and Brazil, but its reputation in Africa does not appear to have been sustained it its Western habitat.

Coquilla nut.—The fruit of the Piassaba palm, Attalea funifera, a native of Brazil, where it grows about thirty feet high. The fruit is produced in bunches, and are each about three inches long, covered with a thin rind. The nut is very hard, and is used as a substitute for bone and ivory in the manufacture of articles for the household.

[Coquito nut.]—This is the fruit of the wing-leaved palm of Chile, Jubæa spectabilis. It is a moderately tall species, and closely resembles, in general habit, the date palm. The nuts are edible, but they are of secondary importance, this palm being valued mainly for the sweet sap issuing from the stem when cut down, this continuing to exude from it for weeks after it is severed from the roots. The sap is gathered and boiled, and when reduced to the consistency of molasses becomes an article of commerce, under the name of Meil de Palma or palm honey.

Cream nut.—A local name of [Brazil nut].

Dawa nut.—See [Litchi nut].

Earth nut, or [earth chestnut], etc.—A small, low-growing, herbaceous plant of the carrot family (Umbelliferæ), common in waste or uncultivated grounds in Great Britain and other countries of northern Europe. Formerly botanists supposed there were two species, but of late only one, the Bunium bulbocastanum. On the roots there are small, nut-like tubers, of a sweetish taste, and they are eaten by children, either in the raw state or after being roasted. These tubers have various local names, and in addition to the above, they are called kipper nuts, and pig nuts in England, but a familiar local name in Scotland is lousy nuts, because it is said that eating them is sure to breed lice. But this story may have been invented by parents to deter their children from digging and eating the roots of wild plants. Willdenow, in naming this species, certainly recognized its edible qualities, and that children were fond of it, else he would not have called it an earth chestnut,—bulbo, bulb, and castanum from castanea, the chestnut.

Elk nut.—See [Oil nut].

Fisticke nut.—See [Pistacia nut].

[Fox nut.]—The seeds of a floating, annual aquatic plant, the Euryale ferox, native of India, and belonging to the water lily family (Nymphæaceæ). It is a handsome plant, with leaves about two feet in diameter, of a rich purple on the underside, with thorn-like spines on the veins. Flowers deep violet-red. The seeds of this species are eaten by the natives, the same as the aborigines of this country gathered the seeds of our indigenous Nelumbium luteum, under the name of water chinquapin, using them for food in the late fall and winter.

Ginkgo nut.—The large, round, white, somewhat flattened, nut-like seeds of the now common maidenhair tree, or Ginkgo biloba, also known as Salisburia adiantifolia of some nurserymen's catalogues and many recent botanical works. The former, however, is the older and correct scientific name. This tree is a native of China and Japan, and of a slender, sparsely branched habit, growing from fifty to eighty feet high in its native countries. It is a deciduous, cone-bearing (Coniferæ) tree, with two-lobed, fan-shaped leaves two to three inches broad, divided about halfway down from the top. The male and female flowers are on separate trees, and to secure seed or nuts both sexes must be grown near together. The ginkgo was introduced into European gardens in 1754, and there are now many fruiting specimens, especially in France, from whence the nuts have long been secured for planting, by nurserymen and others interested in tree culture. There are very few bearing trees in this country, and one in Washington, D. C., has been fruiting for a number of years. In China and Japan the seeds or nuts are valued for their edible qualities, but they have a kind of disagreeable, balsamic taste in their raw state, although this is dispelled by roasting, after which they are quite sweet and palatable. As the trees do not begin to bear until of considerable age, and the nuts are inferior to many other kinds, I do not think the ginkgo will ever become very popular in this country as a nut tree.

Goora nut.—See [Cola nut].

Gorgon nut.—See [Fox nut].

Groundnut.—The small, globular tubers of the dwarf three-leaved ginseng, Aralia trifolia, are called groundnuts in some of our Northern States, and they are frequently sought for, dug up and eaten by children, as I know from personal experience. The plant belongs to the ginseng family (Araliaceæ), and is closely related to the true five-leaved ginseng (Aralia quinquefolia), but our groundnut has only three leaves, instead of five; besides, it is a somewhat smaller plant, rarely more than six to eight inches high. When the scattered seed sprout in spring, they send down a long, slender, thread-like rootstock, to a depth of from four to six inches, and at the bottom of this the small tuber is produced. It has a somewhat pungent taste, but this only whets the appetite of a boy when on a hunt for ground nuts.

Groundnut.—The tubers of one of the most widely distributed climbing plants of the Eastern States, and common in low, wet grounds almost everywhere, from Canada to Florida, and westward to the Mississippi. This plant is described in most of the botanical works of the present day under the name of Apios tuberosa, and it belongs to the Pulse family (Leguminosæ), and is closely related to the common and well-known wistarias, although much smaller and of a more slender habit. It is a smooth, perennial, twining vine, with pinnate leaves, and dense racemes or clusters of small brownish-purple pea-shaped flowers. The subterranean rootstocks bear long strings of edible tubers, from one to two inches long, and from an inch to an inch and a half in diameter, somewhat variable in shape, dark brown on the outside, but white within. When boiled or roasted these tubers have a rich, farinaceous, nutty flavor. This tuber or groundnut is the one described by Mr. Thomas Herriot, the historiographer of Sir Walter Raleigh's expedition to Virginia in 1585, under the Indian name of "Openawk." He says: "These roots are round, some as large as walnuts, others much larger; they grow in damp soil, many hanging together, as fixed on ropes; they are good food, either boiled or roasted." These tubers are to be found in the swamps and damp soils of Virginia at this day, just as they were at the time of Herriot's visit, but many modern historians have tried to make out that Raleigh's colonists found our common potato among the Indians at that time, although I have never been able to find a scrap of trustworthy history to support such a claim, or that Raleigh himself ever planted or cultivated the American potato in Ireland or England, or, in fact, ever tasted one of these tubers.

Groundnut.—See [Peanut or Goober].

Hazelnut, or Chile hazel.—This is merely a local English name for the fruit of a small evergreen tree, native of Chile, S. A., where it is known as Guevina, and this has been adopted as the name of the genus, adding the specific name of the European hazel, so we have Guevina Avellana, although in some botanical works it may be found under the name of Qudria heterophylla. It belongs to the Protea family (Proteaceæ). It has white, hermaphrodite flowers, in long axillary racemes; these are succeeded by coral-red fruit about the size of a large cherry; the stone or nut-like seeds being edible are largely used by the Chileans. They are said to taste like the hazel, hence the name. Trees are hardy in the southwest of England, and would probably succeed here in the Southern States. It has been planted and found to thrive in California. Readily propagated from seed or green cuttings under glass.

[Horse-chestnut.]—The fruit of a genus of deciduous ornamental trees and shrubs, native of Asia and North America. The common horse-chestnut, or Æsculus Hippocastanum, is a native of Asia, and was introduced into Europe over three hundred years ago, its large, smooth seeds and prickly husks probably suggesting both its common and scientific names, although these trees do not even belong to the same order as the true edible chestnuts (Castanea), but to the soapworts (Sapindaceæ). It is supposed that the prefix, "horse," was derived from a custom among the Turks, of giving the nuts to horses as a medicine when these animals were afflicted with a cough or inclined to become wind-broken. In southern Europe they are sometimes fed to cows to increase the flow of milk, and at one time they were employed for making paste for book binders. They are scarcely edible, although containing considerable farinaceous matter, owing to the presence of a bitter narcotic principle. Our native species, better known as Buckeyes, with both smooth and prickly fruit, are equally worthless as food.

Ivory nut.—There are two species of palms producing nuts hard enough to be employed as a substitute for ivory, in the manufacture of small articles of domestic use. But the one best known to commerce under the name of ivory nut is the fruit of Phytelephas macrocarpa, native of New Granada and other parts of Central America. This palm is a low-growing and almost decumbent species, the stem seldom more than six to eight inches in diameter; but the leaves are of immense length, or from fifteen to twenty feet, growing in bundles, or clusters. The fruit consists of about forty nuts, enclosed in a rough, spiny husk, of a globular form, produced on a short footstalk growing from the axis of the leaves, the whole bunch weighing from twenty to thirty pounds. They are two inches long, slightly triangular, and covered with a thin, pulpy coat, which becomes dry, papery and brittle when thoroughly dried, but when in its green state it is sometimes utilized by the natives for making a favorite beverage. The ripe nuts are very solid, hard, and when polished resemble ivory. Immense quantities of these nuts are imported into this country, as well as Europe, and used as a substitute for bone and ivory for making buttons, toys, and similar small articles.

Jesuit chestnut.—See [Water chestnut].

Jicara nut.—A local name, in some of the Central American States for the Calabash (Crescentia Cujete). A low-growing, rather rough tree, with simple leaves, usually three growing together on a broad leafstalk. The fruit is extremely variable, both in size and form, but mainly globose, and two to four inches in diameter. The shell is very hard, and largely used for drinking cups, and these are sometimes highly ornamented on the outside. The kernel is scarcely edible, but is used by the natives as a medicine.

Juba nut.—See [Coquito nut].

Juvia nut.—See [Brazil nut].

Kipper nut.—See [Earth chestnut].

[FIG. 103]. LITCHI OR LEECHEE NUT.

[Litchi nut] or leechee nut.—I am inclined to think that the affix of "nut" to this Oriental fruit is an Americanism, and not used elsewhere. There are three distinct species of this fruit known among the Chinese, under the name of Litchi, Longan or Long-yen, and Rambutan, all the product of the Nepheliums, a genus of the soapberry family (Sapindaceæ). By some of the earlier botanical works the litchi is placed either in the genus Dimocarpus or Euphoria. Within the past few years this fruit has appeared in our markets, in consequence of the increased trade with Oriental countries, and facilities for rapid transit across the continent. The litchi is a globular fruit, about one inch in diameter (Fig. 103), with a thin, chocolate-brown colored shell covered with wart-like protuberances. When fresh the shell is filled with a white, jelly-like pulp, in the center of which there is one rather large, smooth brown seed. The pulp is of a most delicious sub-acid flavor, but it is often rather dry and stale in the nuts which reach us from China and Japan. The tree producing this fruit is seldom more than twenty-five feet high, with rather sturdy twigs and branches, the leaves composed of about seven oblong pointed leaflets. This is said to be one of the most popular of Oriental fruits, and the trees would probably succeed in many of the Southern States and in California. It is now on trial in Florida, having been introduced there in 1886. It has been fruited in England many times, but always under glass, where the plants receive protection and artificial heat. A full description of this species, accompanied by a superb colored plate of the Nephelium or Dimocarpus Longana, appeared in the "Transactions of the London Horticultural Society," 1818, p. 402. There are not only a large number of species of the Nepheliums bearing edible fruit, but, as might be expected from their long and extensive cultivation, many local varieties, especially in the southern provinces of China and throughout the islands of tropical Asia. The Dawa of the Fiji islands is the fruit of N. pinnatum, a tree growing sixty feet high, and forming extensive forests on those islands. At some future time we may be receiving the dawas under the name of Fiji nuts.

Lousy nut.—See [Earth chestnut].

Marking nut.—The seeds of Semecarpus Anacardium, an evergreen tree of the cashew-nut family (Anacardiaceæ), native of tropical Asia, and especially Ceylon. It has large, oblong leaves, and grows about fifty feet high, and the fruit is produced on a fleshy receptacle. The natives roast and eat these nuts, and the black juice obtained from the green fruit is used for marking cloth, hence the common name. The juice is also mixed with lime to make an excellent indelible ink, also for a kind of varnish.

Miriti nut or ita palm nut.—These are the Indian names of the fruit of a lofty palm tree, the Mauritia flexuosa, of the swamps along the Orinoco river, also in wet soils at higher elevations. This giant palm grows to a hight of a hundred and fifty feet, with an immense crown of large, fan-shaped leaves, and just beneath these the fruit appears in a pendulous cluster eight to ten feet long, containing several bushels, weighing, altogether, from one to three hundred pounds. The individual nuts are about the size of an ordinary apple, with a very smooth shell, somewhat veined or streaked. The natives of the country not only use the farinaceous kernels of these nuts as food, but obtain a saccharine material from the pith, out of which they make wine by fermentation. The petioles of the leaves also furnish them with a strong fiber, used as thread-cord, and for various other purposes.

[Moreton Bay] chestnut.—See [Australian chestnut].

Monkey-pot nut.—See [Sapucaia nut].

[Myrobalan nut.]—This name is applied rather indiscriminately to the fruits of several species of the genus Terminalia, which are, in the main, large trees of the Myrobalan family (Combretaceæ). They are native of India, Malay, Fiji, and, in fact, almost all the islands of the Pacific in warm latitudes. The fruits are similar to large plums, but slightly angular, containing a hard, nut-like seed. They are used principally for tanning leather, and also for making ink similar to that made from oak galls. The kernels of all the species are edible, and are eaten by the natives. In the Fiji islands the Terminalia Catappa is a favorite tree with the natives, and they plant it near the houses. The kernels of this species have the flavor of the sweet almond.

Nickar nut.—The seeds of two species of Guilandina, a genus of the bean family (Leguminosæ). They are climbing plants, with hard-wooded, prickly stems, forming almost impenetrable thickets near the seacoast in the East Indies and other tropical countries. They have become widely distributed, as the pods readily float when they drop into the water. The pods are about three inches long, very prickly, containing seeds or nuts about the size of small marbles, and exceedingly hard; but in time the water softens them, after which they sprout and grow when cast upon the shore by the waves. The two species are distinguished mainly by the color of the nuts, those of G. Bonduc being yellow, and those of G. Bonducella gray, or with a reddish tint. Of no value or use except as botanical curiosities.

Nitta or nutta nut.—The native African name of the seeds of Parkia Africana, a tree of the sensitive-tree section of the bean family (Leguminosæ). It grows about forty feet high, and has compound winged leaves. It has become naturalized in the West Indies. The pods grow in clusters, the seeds imbedded in a yellowish, sweet pulp, like the carob or St. John's bread, and the negroes are very fond of them. In the Soudan the seeds are roasted, and then allowed to ferment in water until they are soft and putrid, after which they are washed, pounded and dried, then made up into cakes to be used as a sauce for different kinds of food. It is supposed that the African traveler, Mungo Park, first brought these seeds or nuts to the notice of Europeans, and Robert Brown named the genus Parkia in his honor.

[Nutmeg.]—A name applied to the fruits of a large number of trees, and of different orders of plants. The true nutmegs of commerce are the fruits of trees belonging to the genus Myristica, and of the family Myristicaceæ. The oldest and best known of these is the M. fragrans, a small, widely branching tree, growing twenty to twenty-five feet high, and supposed to be indigenous to the Indian Archipelago. The fruit is about the size of an ordinary walnut, with a thick rind, which, upon opening, at maturity, discloses a reddish aril covering the nut within. This aril or husk is the mace of commerce, while the true nutmeg is the center or hard seed (nut). The Brazil nutmeg is longer than the true species, and is sold under the name of long nutmeg, and is the fruit of M. fatua. Another species, the M. otoba, is cultivated in Madagascar, but is scarcely known in commerce.

Another species, the M. sebifera, is a common tree in the forests of Guiana, North Brazil, and up into Panama. It is utilized principally for the oil extracted from the nuts, obtained by macerating them in water, the oil rising to the surface, and as it cools skimmed off.

The seeds of several species of conifers and laurels are known, either locally or in commerce, as nutmegs, or are used as a substitute for the true nutmeg. There are three different kinds of trees, native of Guiana, in addition to the one already named, the seeds of which are employed as a spice or medicine. One of these is the Acrodiclidium camara. These nuts are known in commerce as "Ackawai nutmegs," and are used mainly as a cure for diarrhœa and colic. Another is the seed of the Aydendron Cujumary tree, and they are known in commerce as "Cujumary beans," although they are not, strictly speaking, a bean, and the same is true of the so-called "Puchurim beans," from the same country, for they are the fruit of [Nectandy Puchury], a small tree of the laurel family. They are used as a tonic, and considered highly stimulating.

Clove Nutmeg, or Madagascar nutmeg of commerce, is the fruit of Agathophyllum aromaticum, a small evergreen tree, indigenous to Madagascar.

Brazilian Nutmegs are the highly aromatic seeds of Cryptocarya moschata, or Atherosperma moschata of some botanists. It is a lofty tree, native of Brazil. The aromatic nuts are used as a substitute for nutmegs, but are very inferior to the genuine.

[Peruvian Nutmeg], or Plum Nutmeg.—The seeds of a large evergreen tree with aromatic foliage, like our common sassafras, and for this reason is sometimes called Chilean or Peruvian sassafras. The seeds are of no more economic value than those of our native sassafras. It is known under various botanical names, but Laurelia sempervirens is, perhaps, the most familiar.

California Nutmeg, or Stinking Nutmeg, is the nut-like seed of Torreya Californica, a small tree of the yew family (Taxaceæ). The fruit is from an inch to an inch and a half long, with a fleshy rind enclosing a hard, long nut, which is slightly grooved like a nutmeg. The fruit, leaves and wood are strongly scented, hence the name of "stinking nutmeg," or "stinking yew." Another species, the T. taxifolia, is a native of Florida.

[Oil nut.]—The fruit of a low-branching, deciduous native shrub, growing three to ten feet high, with alternate leaves and small greenish flowers in terminal spikes. It is the Pyrularia oleifera of Gray, and Hamiltonia oleifera of Muhlenberg. The fruit is in the form of a pear-shaped drupe, about an inch long, the small seed or nut with an oily kernel of strong acrid taste; of no value. This shrub is found on shady banks in the mountains of Pennsylvania, and southward into Georgia.

Paradise nut.—See [Sapucaia nut].

[Peanut], groundnut, goober.—The well-known fruit of Arachis hypogæa, a low-growing annual belonging to the pulse or pea family (Leguminosæ), supposed to be a native of South America, but now extensively cultivated in nearly all semi-tropical countries and wherever the summers are long enough to insure the ripening of the seeds. Extensively cultivated in Virginia, south and westward. Too well known to require any further comment or notice here.

Pecan nut.—See [Chap. VII].

Pekea nut.—See [Souari nut].

Peruvian nut.—See [Nutmegs].

Physic nut.—The seeds of Jatropha Curcas, a small tree of the spurgewort family (Euphorbiaceæ). It is native of some of the West Indies and warmer parts of South America, but now cultivated in other tropical countries for its seeds, which yield an oil used for the same purposes as castor oil, but rather more powerful and drastic. The seeds have a nutty flavor, but are rather dangerous if eaten in any considerable quantities, and death has been known to follow excess in this direction.

Physic nut.—In "Bartram's Travels," he refers to a seed or nut of a plant he found growing in Florida under this name, p. 41, as follows: "... some very curious new shrubs and plants, particularly the physic nut or Indian olive. The stems arise, many from a root, two or three feet high; the leaves sit opposite, on very short petioles; they are broad, lanceolate, entire and undulated, having a smooth surface, of a deep green color. From the bosom of each leaf is produced a single oval drupe, standing erect on long slender stems; it has a large kernel and thin pulp. The fruit is yellow when ripe, and about the size of an olive. The Indians, when they go in pursuit of deer, carry this fruit with them, supposing that it has the power of charming or drawing that creature to them, from whence, with traders, it has obtained the name of physic nut, which means, with them, charming, conjuring or fascinating."

To what kind of fruit Bartram referred under the name of "physic nut," is not certain, but his description of the plant comes very near that of the American olive (Olea Americana), but the fruit of this and other closely allied plants of the same family are not "yellow" when ripe, but purple.

Pignut, or hognut.—See chapter on [Hickory].

Pine nut.—A name applied indiscriminately to the many species of pine trees (Pinus) bearing seeds large enough to be conveniently used as food. In southern Europe, and especially in Italy and the south of France, the seeds of the stone pine (Pinus Pinea) have been extensively used as food, from the earliest times down to the present day. Nearly all the ancient authors refer to them as among the valuable products of the country. Macrobius, in his story of the Saturnalia, speaks of the cones as Nuces vel Poma Pinea. These pine nuts are called Pinocchi in Italy and Sicily, and occasionally a few reach this country, where the Italian name has been corrupted into Pinolas. These seeds or nuts are used for desserts, puddings and cakes, also eaten raw at table, as with almonds. They have a slight taste of turpentine, but it is not strong enough to be at all disagreeable.

[FIG. 104]. BRANCH OF NUT PINE.

In this country we have several native species bearing very large edible seeds, and they are known in the West under the general name of Piñon, or nut pines. The best of these nuts, to my taste, are the seeds of Pinus edulis, so named by the late Dr. Engelmann, because of its large, sweet and edible seeds. It is a small, low-growing tree, more or less common on dry hills and slopes, from Colorado southward through New Mexico, and into western Texas. The seeds of Pinus Parryana and Pinus cembroides, of Arizona and Lower California, are also called Piñons, and largely gathered by the Indians. Farther east and north, we find the one-leaved pine (Pinus monophylla), and although the seeds are much smaller than those of P. edulis, they were formerly gathered in immense quantities by the Indians, to help eke out their often scanty winter store of food. Occasionally a small quantity of these pine nuts is sent to Eastern markets, but rarely, unless ordered early in the season. The trees of P. edulis and P. monophylla are perfectly hardy here, and worth cultivating for ornament, as well as their nuts, although their slow growth is a rather severe test of one's patience. Fig. 104 shows a Piñon branch.

[Pistachio nut.]—Historically, this is a very ancient nut, for Bible commentators claim that it is the one sent by Jacob into Egypt. It is the fruit of a small, deciduous tree of the cashew family (Anacardiaceæ), a native of western Asia, but many centuries ago it had become naturalized in Palestine and throughout the Mediterranean regions. It has shining evergreen winged leaves, and the bark on the young twigs is brown, becoming russet-colored with age. There are several different species, but the one producing the nuts of commerce is the Pistacia vera, having brownish-green flowers in loose panicles, and these are succeeded by bunches of reddish fruit, about an inch long, with an oblique or bent point. The nuts have a double shell, the outer one usually red, the inner one smooth and brittle; the kernel is pale green, sweet, and of rather pleasant taste. There are a number of varieties, differing only slightly in form and size. This nut has been cultivated sparingly in Great Britain since 1570, but the climate is not quite warm enough to insure its ripening in the open air. It would probably succeed throughout the greater part of California, as well as in the extreme Southern States, but Mr. Berckmans writes me that it is not hardy in his grounds at Augusta, Ga. There is a species of pistacia known as P. Mexicana, found in central Mexico, and extending as far north as San Diego, in California, according to the report of Dr. Cooper (Botany of California, Vol. I, p. 109).

Quandang nut.—A medium size Australian tree, the Santalum acuminatum, of the sandalwood family (Santalaceæ). It produces a plum-like fruit, which is best known in its native country as the quandang nut. It is used as a preserve, but is little known, except in or near its native habitats.

Queensland nut.—See [Australian hazelnut].

[FIG. 105]. PARADISE OR SAPUCAIA NUT.

[Sapucaia nut.]—The Brazilian name of, at least, two species of large forest trees growing in the valley of the Amazon and its tributaries. The best known of these is the Lecythis Zabucajo, a lofty tree of the myrtle family (Myrtaceæ). It is closely allied to the more common Brazil nut of commerce. The sapucaia nuts are produced in an urn-shaped, woody capsule, which has received the name of Monkey-pot, because when these capsules ripen the lid at the top is suddenly liberated, emitting a sharp sound, which, as heard by the monkeys, gives them notice that the nuts are falling, and that the first on the ground becomes the fortunate possessor of the largest number. The capsules or pots are about six inches in diameter, and the lid opening at the top about two inches. The nuts, which are packed very closely in the shell, are about one inch in diameter, and two to three in length, with a thin, brown, and very much wrinkled and twisted shell (Fig. 105). The kernel is white, sweet, oily, and somewhat more delicate in flavor than that of the common Brazil nut. In New York city these nuts are sold under the name of Paradise nuts. But this is probably only a local name, for I have been unable to find it in any botanical work. These nuts rarely come to this country in any considerable quantities; a few hundred pounds at a time would be considered a large consignment.

Sassafras nut.—See [Nutmeg, Chilean].

Sassafras nut.—See [Nutmeg, Puchury].

Snake nut.—A large, roundish fruit, about the size of the black walnut, the product of the Ophiocaryon paradoxum, a large tree of the soapberry family (Sapindaceæ), native of British Guiana. This nut takes its name of "Snake nut," from the peculiar form of the embryo of the seed, which is curled up spirally. The Indians, thinking there must be some virtue in form, use these nuts as an antidote for snake bites, although, so far as known to science, they do not possess any medicinal properties.

[FIG. 106]. SOUARI NUT.

[Souari nut], or butternut.—This nut, like the last, is a native of British Guiana, and is the fruit of the Caryocar nuciferum, a noble tree, growing a hundred feet high, having large, broad, trifoliate leaves, resembling those of our common horse-chestnut, but not quite as broad. The flowers are very large, and, with the tube, fully a foot long, of a deep purple on the outside, and yellow within. They are composed of five thick, fleshy petals, and as showy as some of our best and brightest-colored magnolias. The flowers are produced in terminal clusters or corymbs, succeeded by a large, round, four-celled fleshy fruit five to six inches in diameter; but as some of the embryo nuts usually fail to grow, it changes the form of the fruit as it enlarges towards maturity, and only one or two of the nuts mature and ripen, very much as frequently occurs in both the sweet and horse-chestnuts. The nuts are affixed to a central axis, and are of a rounded, subreniform shape, and even flattened to an almost sharp edge on one side, and broadly truncate at the scar (hilum) where they are attached to the pericarp or central axis. The shell is of a deep brown color, embossed, as it were, with smooth tubercles. They are from two to two and a half inches or more in their broadest diameter, as shown in Fig. 106. The kernel or meat is pure white, soft, rich and oily, with a pleasant flavor. This nut is a rarity in our markets, and Mr. H. R. Davy of New York, to whom I am indebted for a specimen, as well as other rare kinds, assures me that in his forty-five years' experience as a dealer in foreign fruits and nuts, he has never known of but one lot, and that one consisted of about one-half bushel, brought into his store by a sailor, who only knew their common South American name. These nuts are more frequently seen in European seaports than in those of this country.

South Sea chestnut.—See [Tahitian chestnut].

[Tahitian chestnut.]—The seeds of a tree known in the South Sea islands by the native name of Toi, but to botanists as Inocarpus edulis. It belongs to the bean family (Leguminosæ). The tree grows sixty to eighty feet high, and when young the stems are fluted like a Grecian column, but as they increase with age the projections extend outward, until they form a kind of buttress all around the lower part, gradually decreasing upward. This so-called chestnut tree has yellow flowers, succeeded by fibrous pods containing one large seed or nut, which, when roasted or boiled, resembles the chestnut in taste. The nuts have a different local name in almost every one of the Pacific islands where it is at all abundant.

Tavola nut.—See [Myrobalan nut].

Tallow nut.—A local and nearly obsolete name for the fruit of the Ogeechee lime or sour gum tree (Nyssa capitata) of the swamps of Florida, Georgia and westward. The fruit is about an inch long, resembling a small plum, the pulp having an agreeable acid taste. Bartram, p. 94, refers to this fruit under the name of "Tallow nut," but why so called is not explained.

Tallow nut.—The fruit of the Chinese Tallow tree, Stillingia sebifera, of the spurgewort family (Euphorbiaceæ), a native of China, where it is, as well as in some of the warmer parts of America, extensively cultivated. It has been planted in a few localities in the Southern States, and appears to thrive. It is a small tree thirty to forty feet high, with rhomboid tapering leaves and a three-celled capsuled fruit, each cell containing only a single seed thickly coated with a yellow, tallow-like substance, hence its common name. This tallow or grease is used for making soap, burning in lamps, and also for dressing cloth.

Temperance nut.—An English name of [cola nut].

Torrey nut.—The hard, nut-like seeds of Torreya nucifera, of Siebold, or Taxus nucifera, of Kæmpfer, and Caryotaxus nucifera, of Zuccarini, a tree native of Japan, where these nuts are eaten by the Japanese, either raw or roasted. An oil is also extracted from the nuts, for use in cooking or for burning in lamps. This Japanese tree belongs to the same genus as the so-called California nutmeg (see [Nutmeg]) and our Florida stinking cedar (T. taxifolia), also the great Chinese cedar (T. grandis).

[FIG. 107]. WATER CHESTNUT.

[Water chestnut.]—Also known as water caltrops. The seeds of several species of water plants of the genus Trapa, of the evening primrose family (Onagraceæ). In southern Europe and eastward there is a species found in ponds, the seeds of which are called Jesuit chestnuts (T. natans), and in India and Ceylon a closely allied one, the Singhara-nut plant (T. bispinosa), while in Lago Maggiore there is another (T. verbanensis), but all may be varieties of one and the same species, including the Trapa bicornis, a two-horned water chestnut, extensively used in China and Japan as food under various local names. In China they are called Ling, and of late years have been occasionally imported and sold, more as curiosities than for eating. These seeds or nuts are of a dark brown color, and of the form and size shown in Fig. 107, resembling, in miniature, the skull of an ox with abbreviated horns. When fresh, the kernel is of an agreeable nutty flavor.

Water chestnut, or chinquapin.—The seeds of the large yellow water lily (Nelumbium luteum), a very common plant in small ponds in the West and South, but more rare in the East. The seeds are about the size and shape of small acorns, and produced in a large, top-shaped, fleshy receptacle. They are edible, and are supposed to have been extensively used as food by the aborigines of this country.

---

INDEX.

Ackawai nutmeg, [274]
Acorn, [254]
Acrodiclidium camara, [274]
Æsculus hippocastanum, [268]
Agathophyllum aromaticum, [274]
Aleurites triloba, [259]
Almond, [12]
bitter, [34]
budding, bud in position, [28]
incision for bud, [27]
budding knife, [24]
budding knife, Yankee, [24]
prepared shoot of buds, [26]
season for budding, [22]
culture in California, [17]
history of the, [13]
insects and diseases, [39]
Cercospora circumscissa, [43]
Goes pulverulenta, [52]
Scolytus rugulosus, [42]
Taphrina deformans, [43]
orchard in California, [18]
planting and pruning, [32]
propagation of the, [19]
properties and uses of, [39]
pruning, [33]
raising seedlings for stocks, [20]
soil and exposure for the, [30]
varieties, [34]
hard-shelled, [35], [36]
large-fruited, [37]
ornamental varieties, [38]
peach, [37]
soft or brittle-shelled, [36]
sweet, [40]
thin-shelled, [37]
Amygdalus argentea, [39]
Cochinchinensis, [38]
communis amara, [34]
dulcis, [35]
fragilis, [36]
macrocarpa, [37]
persicoides, [37]
incana, [39]
nana, [39]
orientalis, [39]
Anacardium occidentale, [260]
Apios tuberosa, [267]
Arachis hypogæa, [275]
Aralia trifolia, [266]
Areca catechu, [256]
Atherosperma moschata, [274]
Attalea funifera, [264]
Australian chestnut, [255]
Australian hazelnut, [256]
Aydendron cujumary, [274]
Beech, American, [48]
Chile, [48]
European, [48]
evergreen, [48]
history of, [44]
injurious insects, [52]
properties and uses, [52]
propagation of, [47]
soil and location for the, [47]
species and varieties, [48]
Beechnut, [44]
leaf, bur and nut, [51]
Ben nut, [256]
Bertholletia excelsa, [267]
Betel nut, [256]
Bladder nut, [257]
Brazil nut, [257]
Brazilian nutmegs, [273], [274]
Bread nut, [258]
Brosimum alicastrum, [258]
Buffalo nut, [259]
Bunium bulbocastanum, [265]
Butternut, [259], [280]
Byzantium nut, [259]
California chestnut, [55]
California nutmeg, [275]
Calodendron Capense, [259]
Candle nut, [259]
Cape chestnut, [259]
Caryocar nuciferum, [280]
Caryotaxus nucifera, [283]
Cashew nut, [260]
Castanea chrysophylla var. minor, [57]
Castanea chrysophylla var. pumila, [57]
Castanea sempervirens, [55]
Castanopsis, [55]
bur, [57]
chrysophylla, [55]
leaves and nuts, [56]
Castanospermum Australe, [255]
Caucasian walnut, [261]
Chestnut, [60]
budding, [80]
diseases of the, [116]
distance between trees, [82]
European varieties of, [99]
Comfort, [100]
Cooper, [100]
Corson, [100]
Dager, [101]
Moncur, [101]
Numbo, [102]
spines of, [102]
Miller's Dupont, [102]
Paragon, [102]
bur, [103]
nut, [104]
spines of, [103]
tree, four years old, [105]
Ridgely, [104]
bur, [106]
Scott, [107]
Styer, [108]
flowers, [61]
French variety of the, [108]
gathering and assorting, [65]
grafting, [71]
cleft, [77]
growth of cion, [78]
large trees, [79]
materials, [72]
modes of, [75]
season for, [71]
splice, [75]
sprouts, [79]
success in, [78]
wax, [72]
history of the, [62]
insects injurious to, [113]
Balaninus carytripes, [113]
weevil, [114]
Japan, [109]
Advance, [110]
Alpha, [111]
Beta, [111]
Early Reliance, [111]
Felton, [111]
Giant, [110], [111]
Killen, [112]
Parsons, [112]
Parry's Superb, [112]
Success, [112]
mulching, [82]
native varieties of the, [94]
burless, [94]
bush chinquapin, [96]
common chinquapin, [97]
Fuller's chinquapin, [97]
chinquapin burs, [97]
chinquapin tree, [98]
Hathaway, [95]
Phillips, [95]
planting, [68]
in nursery rows, [69]
propagation of the, [64]
seedbed and soil for, [67]
soil and climate for, [83]
species of, [86]
American, [88]
species bush chinquapin, [89]
Castanea Americana, [88]
Japonica, [93]
nana, [89]
pumila, [90], [91]
sativa, [91]
vesca, [91]
European, [91]
Japan, [93]
leaf, [92]
staking transplanted trees, [81]
stocks from the forests, [70]
transplanting and pruning, [80]
uses of, [119]
Chile hazelnut, [268]
Chocolate nut or bean, [261]
Clearing nut, [262]
Clove nutmeg, [274]
Cocoanut, [262]
double, [263]
Cocos nucifera, [262]
Cola acuminata, [264]
nut, [264]
Coquito nut, [264]
Coquilla nut, [264]
Cream nut, [265]
Crescentia cujete, [269]
Cryptocarya moschata, [274]
Cujumary beans, [274]
Dawa nut, [265]
Dimocarpus longana, [271]
Earth nut, [265]
chestnut, [265]
Elk nut, [265]
Euryale ferox, [265]
Evergreen chestnut, [55]
Fagus antarctica, [48]
betuloides, [48]
ferruginea, [48]
obliqua, [48]
sylvatica, [48]
Fisticke nut, [265]
Filbert or hazelnut, [118]
Fox nut, [265]
Galeruca calmariensis, [5]
Ginkgo biloba, [265]
nut, [265]
Goober, [275]
Goora nut, [264]
Gorgon nut, [266]
Groundnut, [266], [267], [275]
Guevina Avellana, [268]
Guilandina bouduc, [273]
bonducella, [273]
Hamiltonia oleifera, [275]
Hazelnut or filbert, [118]
American species of hazel, [126]
beaked hazel, [127]
Corylus Americana, [126]
Corylus rostrata, [127]
Asiatic species of hazel, [128]
C. ferox & heterophylla, [128]
blight, [138]
Cryptospora anomala, [139]
fungus, [141]
European species of, [127]
Constantinople hazel, [129]
Corylus Avellana, [127]
Colurna, [128]
tubulosa, [130]
history of the filbert, [120]
insects injurious to filberts, [145]
personal experience with filberts, [132]
planting and pruning filberts, [124]
propagation of the filbert, [122]
soil, location, etc., for filberts, [123]
varieties of filbert and hazel seedlings, [135]
varieties extra large hazel seedling, [136]
varieties large filbert, [119]
large seedling hazelnut, [120]
select list of, [130]
Alba or white filbert, [130]
Cosford, or Miss Young's thin-shelled, [130]
Crispa, or frizzled filbert, [130]
Downton, large square, [130]
Grandis, or round cob-nut, [131]
Lambert's filbert, [130]
Purple-leaved filbert, [131]
red filbert, red hazel, etc., [131]
Spanish filbert, [132]
Horse-chestnut, [268]
Hickory nuts, [147]
age of fruiting the, [193]
big bud, [160]
big shellbark, [157]
bitter pecan, [165]
bitternut, [163], [164]
brown, [162]
budding and grafting, [183]
crown, on roots, [189]
sprouts from roots, [190]
Carya amara var. myristicæformis, [165]
Carya olivæformis, [155]
cultivation of the, [177]
Hicoria pecan and synonyms, [155]
Hicoria alba, [155]
" " synonyms, [157]
Hicoria aquatica, [165]
" " synonyms, [166]
Hicoria glabra, [162]
" " synonyms, [164]
Hicoria laciniosa, [157]
" " synonyms, [159]
Hicoria minima, [164]
" " synonyms, [165]
Hicoria myristicæformis, [165]
Hicoria tomentosa, [160]
" " synonyms, [162]
history of the, [148]
hognut, [162]
Illinois nut, [155]
insect enemies of the, [195]
American silk worm, [202]
Attacus luna, [202]
belted chion, [199]
bud worm, [202]
burrows of scolytus, [200]
Catocala, [202]
Chion cinctus, [199]
Chramesus icoriæ, [201]
Clisiocampa sylvatica, [202]
Cyllene crinicornis, [198]
pictus, [198]
robiniæ, [198]
Elaphidion inerme, [199]
Goes, beautiful, [199]
pulchra, [199]
tiger, [199]
tigrinus, [199]
Grapholitha caryana, [201]
bark borer, [199]
nut weevil, [202]
shuck worm, [201]
twig girdler, [196]
leaf miners, [202]
leaf rollers, [202]
locust borer, [198]
luna moth, [202]
Oncideres cingulatus, [196]
orange sawyer, [199]
painted borer, [198]
plant lice, [202]
Scolytus [4]-spinosus, [199]
Sinoxylon basilare, [201]
Telea polyphemus, [202]
tent caterpillar, [202]
Tortricidæ, [201]
king nut, [160]
mocker nut, [160]
Pecan nut, [155]
varieties of, [167]
Alba, [167]
Biloxi, [167]
Colorado, [169]
Columbian, [167]
Early Texan, [168]
Faust, [168]
Frotscher, [168]
Georgia Melon, [168]
Gonzales, [168]
Harcourt, [168]
Idlewild, [169]
Jewett, [169]
Lady Finger, [169]
large, long, [167]
Little Mobile, [167]
Longfellow, [168]
Pride of the Coast, [169]
Primate, [168]
Mexican, [169]
Meyers, [170]
Ribera, [168]
Risien, [169]
Stuart, [169]
Turkey Egg, [169]
Van Deman, [169]
pignut [162], [164]
planting for profit, [194]
propagation of the, [180]
shellbark or shagbark, [155]
varieties of, [170]
Hales' paper-shell, [172]
long hickory, [173]
from Missouri, [173]
Western, varieties of, [174]
Floyd pecan, [177]
long, [174]
Nussbaumer's, [174]-[176]
species and varieties, [224]
swamp hickoria, [164], [165]
switch bud, [162]
thick, or western shellbark, [157], [158]
white-heart, [160]
Inocarpus edulis, [282]
Introduction, [1]
Importation of nuts, [8]
Imported nuts, value of, [9]
Ita palm nut, [271]
Ivory nut, [269]
Jesuit chestnuts, [269], [283]
Jicara nut, [269]
Juba nut, [270]
Jubæa spectabilis, [264]
Juvia nut [258], [270]
Kipper nut, [270]
Kola nut, [264]
Laurelia sempervirens, [275]
Lecythis Zabucajo, [279]
Leechee nut, [270]
Litchi nut, [270]
Lodoicea Sechellarum, [263]
Longan, [270]
Longyen, [270]
Lousy nut, [271]
Macadamia ternifolia, [256]
Madagascar nutmeg, [274]
Marking nut, [271]
Mauritia flexuosa, [271]
Miriti nut, [271]
Miscellaneous nuts, [254]
Monkey-pot nut, [272]
Moreton Bay chestnuts, [255]
Moringa optera, [256]
pterygosperma, [256]
Myristica fatua, [273]
fragrans, [273]
otoba, [274]
sebifera, [274]
Myrobalan nut, [272]
Nectandy puchury, [274]
Nelumbium luteum, [284]
Nephelium pinnatum, [271]
Nepheliums, [271]
Nickar nut, [272]
Nittar, or Nutta, [273]
Nuces vel Poma Pinea, [277]
Nutmeg, [273]
Nutmeg hickory, [165]
Nyssa capitata, [282]
Oak nut, [254]
Oil nut [265], [275]
Olea Americana, [276]
Openawk, [267]
Ophiocaryon paradoxum, [280]
Paradise nut, [275]
Parkia Africana, [273]
Peanut, [275]
Pekea nut, [275]
Peruvian nut, [275]
nutmeg, [274]
Phytelephas macrocarpa, [269]
Physic nut, [276]
Pinang, [256]
Pine nut, [276]
Pinocchi, [277]
Pinolas, [277]
Pinon, [277]
Pinus cembroides, [277]
edulis, [277]
monophylla, [278]
Parryana, [277]
pinea, [276]
Piper betel, [256]
Pistacia Mexicana, [278]
vera, [278]
Pistachio nut, [278]
Plum nutmeg, [274]
Pterocarya fraxinifolia, [261]
Puchurim beans, [274]
Pyrularia oleifera, [275]
Quandang nut, [279]
Qudria heterophylla, [268]
Queensland nut, [256]
Quercus virens, [255]
Raffia, or Roffia, [25]
Rambutan, [270]
Salisburia adiantifolia, [265]
Santalum acuminatum, [279]
Sapucaia nut, [279]
Sardis nut, [63]
Sassafras nut, [280]
Semecarpus anacardium, [271]
Singhara-nut plant, [283]
Snake nut, [280]
Sonari nut, [280]
South Sea chestnut, [282]
Staphylea trifolia, [257]
Stillingia sebifera, [282]
Stinking nutmeg, [275]
Strychnos potatorum, [262]
Tahitian chestnut, [282]
Tallow nut, [282]
Tavola nut, [282]
Taxus nucifera, [283]
Temperance nut, [283]
Terminalia Catappa, [272]
Theobroma cacao, [261]
Torrey nut, [283]
Torreya Californica, [275]
nucifera, [283]
Trapa bicornis, [283]
bispinosa, [283]
natans, [283]
verbanensis, [283]
Walnut, [203]
American, [224]
black, [232]
black, in husk, [232]
varieties of, [233]
butternut, [224]
sugar, [227]
varieties of, [225]
California, [234]
Carya cathartica, [225]
Juglans Californica, [234]
cathartica, [225]
cinerea, [224]
hybrida, [225]
oblonga alba, [225]
nigra, [232]
nigra, husk removed, [233]
nigra oblonga, [233]
rupestris, [235]
New Mexico, [235]
Texas, [235]
Wallia cinerea, [225]
white, [224]
budding and grafting, [218]
flute, [220]
history, [203]
husking, [250]
hybrids in California, [227]
flowering branch of, [228]
Juglans Californica, [229]
Sieboldiana, [231], [237]
insect enemies of the, [251]
Citheronia regalis, [252]
Regal walnut moth, [252]
Jovis glans, [203]
Juglans, [203]
Oriental, [236]
Juglans ailantifolia, [237]
Camirium, [236]
Catappa, [236]
cordiformis, [239]
Japonica, [236]
Mandshurica, [237]
Persian, [204]
in America, [209]
Persian, Barthere, [242]
Chaberte, [242]
Chile, [240], [242]
Cluster, [243]
Cut-leaved, [243]
English, [240]
Franquette, [243]
French, [240]
Gant, or Bijou, [243]
Juglans regia, [240]
regia octogona, [245]
serotina, [247]
Kaghazi, [244]
Large-fruited Præparturiens, [244]
Late Præparturiens, [244]
Late, [247]
Madeira nut, [240]
Mayette, [245]
Mesange, or paper-shell, [245]
Meylan, [246]
Octogona, [246]
Parisienne, [246]
Præparturiens, [246]
Precocious, [246]
Racemosa, or Spicata, [243]
Royal, [240]
Small fruited, [240]
St. John, [247]
Variegated, [248]
Vilmorin, [247]
Vourey, [247]
Weeping, [248]
planting and pruning, [223]
propagation of, [215]
seedling, [216]
Water chestnut, [269], [283], [284]
chinquapin, [284]
hickory, [165]
Western cashew, [260]
chinquapin, [55]
Winged-seeded moringa, [256]
Winged walnut, [261]

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