“Grandma, what made those little scars on this finger?” asked Nellie.
“Those,” said grandma, reflectively, “were made by a saucy little gray
squirrel.”
“How?”
“When I was a little girlie, smaller than you, uncle gave me a gray
squirrel in a cage for a pet. As we all fondled him he soon became very
tame. We often opened his cage door and allowed him to run around the
house at will. One day he ran upstairs and played havoc in a feather
bed. After that when out of his cage we kept a close watch on him, never
allowing him in a bedroom.
“But he had already learned a new trick which he seemed very loth to
forget. Every time that he could sneak into a bedroom he would make a
bee-line for the bed, tear a hole in the tick and be inside among the
feathers in a flash.
“As I said before, everyone around the place petted and handled him and
he had never bitten nor scratched anyone. But one day while playing with
him he suddenly leaped from my arms and raced upstairs. Just as he
jumped upon a bed I caught him. This angered his squirrel-ship. He
turned and savagely ran his long, sharp teeth through my finger. The
sores were slow about healing and left these little scars. After that
mother would not allow me to let him out of his cage.”
Loveday Almira Nelson.
[Illustration: ENGLISH WALNUT.
(Juglans regia.)
FROM KŒHLER’S MEDICINAL-PFLANZEN.]
Description of Plate.—A, twig with staminate and pistillate flowers;
B, twig with pistillate flowers; C, fruit; 1-6, flowers and floral
parts; 7-10, fruit and seed (nut).
THE ENGLISH WALNUT AND RELATED TREES.
(_Juglans regia_ L.)
Children fill the groves with the echoes of their glee,
Gathering tawny chestnuts, and shouting when beside them
Drops the heavy fruit of the tall black-walnut tree.
—William Cullen Bryant: “The Third of November.”
The English walnut, butternut, black walnut, shagbark or shellbark
hickory, mockernut or whiteheart hickory, bitternut hickory and pignut
hickory are closely related, belonging to the butternut family, or
technically the Juglandaceæ. They are large, handsome trees, with
spreading branches and cleancut leaves. They are of comparative slow
growth but hardy and enduring.
The English walnut is a tall, large, handsome tree which undoubtedly
came from India. The name walnut is from Walish or Welsch nut; Juglans
from Jovis glans, meaning the nut of Jove, and regia, meaning royal,
hence the royal nut of Jove. The Greeks dedicated the tree to their
chief deity Zeus, who corresponds to the chief deity of the Romans,
namely, Jove or Jupiter. At a Greek wedding the nuts were scattered
among the guests that Zeus might bless the marriage. The tree was
described by numerous ancient writers, among others by Dioscorides,
Plinius, Varro, Columella, and Palladius. Medicinal and other virtues
were ascribed to the fruit and leaves and even to the shade of this
remarkable tree. Arabian physicians used the hull of the unripe fruit
and the leaves medicinally, Karl der Grosse (Charlemagne) recommended
the cultivation of this plant in Germany about 812. It was introduced
into the Mediterranean countries at an early period and extensively
cultivated. From these countries it rapidly spread to northern Europe,
and about 1562 it found its way into the British Isles, where it is
extensively cultivated. It is cultivated somewhat in the United States.
All the other members of the Juglandaceæ are common throughout the
United States, either growing wild or under cultivation. The wood of the
butternut or white walnut and that of the black walnut is extensively
used in cabinet making, furniture making and interior finish,
particularly the wood of the black walnut. The earlier craze for black
walnut furniture threatened to exterminate the plant, but fortunately
(for the walnut tree) the fashion is waning. The wood is heavy, dark
brown in color, of medium hardness, easily worked and readily polished,
though it does not take the glossy polish of the harder woods, as ebony.
Hickory wood is very hard, tough and durable, but it is not suitable for
cabinet making, etc., because it warps too much. It is an excellent wood
for making handles for tools of all descriptions, oxen yokes, hoops,
walking sticks, whiffletrees, wagon stocks, etc. Its tensile strength is
enormous, being said to be equal to that of wrought iron.
The seeds (kernels) of the English walnut, butternut, black walnut and
shagbark hickory are edible and greatly relished, while those of the
bitter and pignut hickories are not edible. Eating too many of the
kernels causes distressing dyspeptic symptoms because of the large
amount of oil which they contain. Salting the kernels before eating or
taking a little salt with them is said to lessen these disturbances. The
oil of these nuts is expressed and used as a salad oil and by artists in
mixing pigments. The half-grown green fruits of the walnuts are pickled
with spices and eaten, but as such relishes have never come into great
favor. They are too severe in their action on the intestinal tract, due
to the tannin, acids and coloring substances present. The hulls of these
nuts are used in dyeing cloth; also the bark of the butternut and black
walnut. The leaves and hull of the English walnut and the inner bark of
the roots of the butternut are still quite extensively used medicinally.
A decoction of the leaves is said to cure gout, scrofula and rickets.
The hulls are recommended in gout and eruptive skin diseases. Fresh
leaves are applied as a fomentation to carbuncles. The extract is used
as a gargle, wash for ulcerous eruptions and taken internally in
tubercular meningitis. The juice of the green hull has been extensively
employed as a popular remedy to remove warts, as an external application
for skin diseases, and internally as a stomachic and worm remedy. The
medicinal virtues of these plants are, however, apparently limited and
unreliable.
The nut so-called of the English walnut, black walnut, butternut and
hickory nut consists of the kernel (seed) and the inner layer (endocarp)
of the fruit coat (pericarp). The endocarp, which is ordinarily
designated as the shell, is very hard and splits more or less easily
into two equal parts. The shell of the English walnut is comparatively
thin and quite easily removed from the kernel. The shell of black walnut
and butternut is very rough, very dark in color, thick, and not so
easily removed from the seed or kernel. The hickory shell is quite
difficult to remove. The kernels are eaten direct or added to cake, cake
frosting, and other pastry, or encased by sugar and chocolate by the
candy maker. The halves of the shell of the English walnut figure
conspicuously in the well known “shell game” of the gambler who seems to
be the central figure at county fairs and many circuses.
As already stated, the trees belonging to the butternut or hickory
family grow quite slowly, and do not attain their full growth for many
years. In our latitude the nuts are planted in the fall when they begin
to germinate late the following spring. In order to give the trees free
growth they should be planted at least thirty feet apart. They begin to
bear fruit at about the tenth year, few nuts at first, but gradually
more and more each year, and they continue to bear for many years. The
leaves, buds and green fruits have a resinous, characteristic aromatic
odor, recalling the lemon. All who have ever handled leaves, green bark
and fruit will remember that the juice colors the skin a dark brown
which is very difficult to remove.
The fruit of the black walnut and butternut when ripe is gathered, the
hulls removed by stamping with mauls, the nuts dried for a week in the
sun and then stored for use. The hull of the English walnut and the
hickory nut is quite easily removed.
Albert Schneider.