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.