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.