THE BUTTERNUT.
The walnut includes two species in this country, the Butternut and the black walnut, both trees of considerable note and importance. The Butternut is a well-known tree in the Northern States, cultivated to a great extent in rural villages, but not very abundant in the forest, from which it has probably been extirpated for the beauty and value of its wood in cabinet-work. It is everywhere seen in the enclosures of farm-houses, where it is valued for its fruit and admired as a shade-tree. It is not so tall as the hickory, and differs from it in general shape, as I have already remarked, subdividing itself into several large and equal branches, and seldom extending a central shaft above the lowest point of subdivision. It is a tree of wider spread but thinner foliage than that of the hickory. Its pinnate leaves are long, with a great number of leaflets, and of a light and rather mellow green. It resembles the black walnut in its botanical characters; but the fruit of the Butternut is more elongated, that of the black walnut being nearly globular.
Every one is familiar with the Butternut-tree. Its fruit being more easily obtained than that of the hickory, and ripe at an earlier period, the tree is generally plundered before the time for gathering it. The outer rind is pulpy, and full of a bitter sap that blackens the hands when pressed out by cracking the nuts in a green state; for the kernel is ripe while the shell is still green. This stain may be removed by any fresh vegetable acid; and for this purpose boys generally procure the leaves of sheep-sorrel, with which they rub the stains from their hands, and after washing in soft water it is found to be entirely removed, if no soap has been used. I am not sure that painters would see much to admire in this tree; but to a native of New England it is so pleasantly associated with juvenile feasts of nuts in the early autumn, gratuitously strewed by the green wayside, and with the simplicity of country life, that it is difficult to see in the form of this tree anything we do not admire. If its foliage is thin, its proportions are handsome and symmetrical, and when in its prime there is no tree that better adorns a rustic enclosure. The Butternut puts forth its leaves about a week earlier than the hickory. It is common in all the New England States, especially on the Green Mountain range, from the northern parts of New Hampshire to the Sound.
THE BLACK WALNUT.
The Black Walnut is common in all the United States below the latitude of Long Island. It is especially abundant in Pennsylvania, and is also found singly and in small scattered groups in New England. It is a larger and more hardy and rapid-growing tree than the English walnut, but it bears an inferior fruit. This tree does not differ from the butternut in general characters, but it is of greater height and more majestic in appearance. It has very long pinnate leaves, of a pure untarnished green and a warmer look than the darker foliage of the hickory. Both trees produce an elegant wood for cabinet-work, but that of the Black Walnut is preferred, though the wood of the butternut is nearer the color of mahogany.