a prolonged point, serrate, rather thick and rough, and lighter colored beneath. The buds are destitute of external scales.

The sterile flowers issue from the sides of last year's shoots, in large green catkins four to seven inches long, and four or five eighths of an inch or more in diameter. They are on oblong, shield-like, green scales, disposed pretty closely on all sides of the catkins. Each scale terminates in a brown, hairy tuft, above which are three lanceolate, pointed lobes, with two lateral lobes midway of the scale. The stamens are about eight to twelve, sessile, brown on the upper surface, which, by the pendence of the catkins, becomes the lower.

Fertile flowers, two, six or seven on a terminal downy stalk. Each is surrounded by an involucre of several broad scales, forming at base the oblong cup, and within them are five or six narrow, pointed sepals, immediately investing the long style, which terminates in a large purple or rose-red stigma, deeply cleft, two to three eighths of an inch long. The cup, which enlarges to become the fruit, is invested with numerous reddish or white glands, which exude a penetrating, viscid substance.

The leaf-stalks and recent shoots are set with similar glands in less number.

The flowers appear in May, and the fruit ripens in October. The fruit grows single or two to five together on the sides and end of a stout, pliable footstalk, which is one to three inches long. They are green, turning to brown, oblong-ovoid, or inversely pear-shaped, invested with glandular hairs, which secrete a clammy, resinous and penetrating odorous substance, and crowned by the stigma and ends of the calyx scales. Within a thin, leathery husk, they contain a nut about two inches long, and of half that thickness, covered with stony, opposite, keellike projections, and sculptured with deep furrows and sharp irregular ridges. It is rounded at base, and acute at the end, and about an inch in diameter. The kernel of this nut is of one piece, but can with difficulty be extracted whole. It is of an oily nature, and soon becomes rancid; but when carefully dried is sweet and very pleasant.

The butternut tree abounds on the Hoosic Mountains, among the Green Mountains, on the sides of the Wachusett, and par

ticularly in the Connecticut valley, where it attains a very large size. It is of very rapid growth when young.

From the bark of this tree an extract is made, which is sometimes employed as a medicine, and is valued as a safe purgative, peculiarly mild in its operation. The bark and the nut-shells are also used to give a brown color to wool. The Shakers at Lebanon dye a rich purple with it. Bancroft says that the husks of the shells of the butternut and black walnut, may be employed in dyeing a fawn color, even without mordants. By means of them, however, greater brightness and durability are given to the color. The bark of the trunk gives a black, that of the root a fawn color, but less powerfully. From the sap an inferior sugar has been obtained. The leaves, which abound in acrid matter, have been used, in the form of powder, as a substitute for Spanish flies.

The young, half-grown nuts, gathered early in June, make excellent pickles, and are much used for that purpose, the clammy down being removed, before pickling, by plunging them in boiling water and rubbing with a coarse cloth.

The wood is light, of a pale reddish color, of little strength, but durable when exposed to heat and moisture, rather tough, and not liable to the attacks of worms. For gun-stocks, it is equally stiff, elastic, and tough with black walnut, but less hard.

It makes beautiful fronts of drawers, as used by the Shakers at Lebanon, and excellent light, tough, and durable wooden bowls. In the western part of the State, coffins are often made of it. Where abundant, it is used for posts and rails, and for the smaller timbers in house frames. It is sometimes used for the panels of coaches and other carriages, being pliable, not splitting when nails are driven into it, and, from its porosity, receiving paint extremely well.

-Michaux says that the butternut is found in Upper and Lower Canada, on the shores of Lake Erie, in the States of Kentucky and Tennessee, and on the banks of the Missouri. It occurs in all the New England States, and in New York and Pennsylvania.

In Richmond, I measured a butternut tree which was thirteen feet and three inches in circumference in the smallest place below

the branches. I have found trees of nearly similar dimensions in many parts of the State, and much larger ones on the Connecticut River.

Sp. 2. THE BLACK WALNUT. J. nigra. L.

Figured in Catesby, Plate 67; in Michaux, Sylva, I, Plate 30; and in Audubon's Birds of America, II, Plate 156.

A fine tree with spreading branches and a broad round head. The bark is rough and furrowed, and darker than that of the butternut tree.

The leaves have from six to ten pairs of leaflets and an odd one. They differ from those of the butternut by being smooth above, while those of the butternut are rough; in having the leaf-stalk smooth, the leaves more smooth on both surfaces, more strongly serrated, less sessile, and a little more pointed, with the leaf-stalk less swollen, and the buds smaller. The fruit is round, and on a short footstalk; that of the butternut, long, ovate, and on a long footstalk.

It is found in Massachusetts, but comes to its greatest perfection, and displays its fullest proportions in the States on the Ohio. On the banks and islands of that river, Michaux says he has often seen trees three or four feet in diameter, and sixty or seventy feet in height, and that it is not rare to find them of the thickness of six or seven feet. "When it stands insulated, its branches, extending themselves horizontally to a great distance, spread into a spacious head, which gives it a very majestic appearance." As it is found growing with us, it is remarkable rather for beauty than for majesty; yet if the flourishing young trees which are now to be seen are allowed to increase for a century, they will probably merit the encomium bestowed by Michaux.

The sterile flowers are loosely set on green, simple catkins, from four to seven inches long, dependent from the axil of the last year's leaves. Stamens very numerous, twenty to thirty or more, green, short, sessile, close set within a nearly circular perianth of six rounded lobes. The fertile flowers are sessile on a terminal common footstalk, an inch or more long. Each cup

is surmounted by a many-toothed circle or involucre, within which are four slender, lanceolate lobes, encircling the style with its long, deeply bifid, purple or red stigma. Recent shoots slightly downy or powdery, as are the leaf-stalks.

The leaves are very long, with from fifteen to twenty-one leaflets; the leaf-stalk downy; leaflets on a short petiole, nearly smooth, downy on the mid-rib above and beneath, ovate-lanceolate, with a long acumination, inequilateral at base, lower ones cordate, middle ones rounded, upper ones acute below and serrate.

Recent branchlets very downy; fruit-stalk somewhat downy. Fruit globose, nearly smooth, or somewhat granulate, and of a greenish yellow when mature, but soon turning to a dark brown. Within the spongy husk is a rough, deeply furrowed nut, round, but slightly flattened, with a woody or bony covering. The kernel, which nearly resembles that of an English walnut in shape, is more oily, but, when carefully dried, of a rich and very agreeable taste.

The wood of the black walnut is of a dark violet or purple color, becoming deeper and almost black with age. It is valuable for its fineness of grain, tenacity, hardness, strength and durability. These qualities, together with its beauty and toughness, render it preferable to any other material for the stocks of muskets. The wood is beautifully shaded, and admits of a fine polish, and it is now very extensively used in the manufacture of tables, chairs, bureaus, bedsteads, and other cabinet work, and sometimes for book-shelves and the cornices and panels of rooms. Where abundant, it serves the same useful ends that hickory does with us. Posts made of it last for more than a quarter of a century. It is brought into the State in considerable quantities for the purposes above mentioned. More nearly than any other American tree, it resembles the European walnut, which, before the introduction of mahogany, was considered the most beautiful material known for the best kinds. of furniture.

Its erect stem and the breadth of shade from its abundant, soft and luxurious foliage, recommend it as an ornamental shade tree. It is perfectly adapted to our climate. It is found growing naturally in small numbers, or solitary, in several

parts of this State, and it has been successfully cultivated in many others. Its growth from the seed is certain and rapid. Its rich, oily fruit, when carefully dried, is nearly equal to that of the shagbark hickory. From the kernel a valuable and abundant oil may be expressed, superior to most others for use in cookery and for lamps. Bread has also been made from the kernels. The spongy husk of the nuts is used as a dye-stuff. It thus unites almost all the qualities desirable in a tree;beauty, gracefulness, and richness of foliage, in every period of its growth; bark and husks which may be employed in an important art; fruit valuable as food; wood unsurpassed in durability for use, or in elegance for ornament.

CARYA. Nuttall.

IV. 2. THE HICKORY. CAR YA.

The hickories are valuable timber trees, with large compound leaves, having from five to fifteen, but usually not more than eleven leaflets. The sterile flowers are in compound catkins, each principal catkin having two opposite branches; the stamens from four to eight in each flower. The fertile flowers are solitary, or in small groups, at the end of the branches. The fruit is a large roundish nut, the husk of which opens partially or wholly, of itself, by four seams.

The hickory is peculiar to America. The nearest approach to it on the Eastern Continent, is in the European walnut. In many respects, it is amongst the most valuable of our trees. It is always a stately and elegant tree; and the several species, and individuals in the same species, exhibit so great a variety of appearance and foliage, that they have almost the interest of a forest. Few trees contribute so much to the beauty of the woods in autumn. The colors of all at that season are rich, and each species has its own. The smoothness, closeness, and hardness of the grain of the wood, give it great value in the arts, and for fuel it holds unquestionably the first place. The fruit of some of the species, even in the unimproved condition of its forest state, vies with the best of foreign nuts, and is destined, doubtless, to be greatly improved by the resources of cultivation.