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.
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.
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.
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.'
"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.
"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.)
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.
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.
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.
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.