Birds and Nature Vol. 11 No. 3 [March 1902]

Besides numerous individuals of the species of warblers already named, in the two weeks between April 9 and 23 I saw one or more of each of the following: Yellow or summer, bluewinged, worm-eating, magnolia, golden winged, chestnut sided, prairie, and the redstart. As I write these names they call up mornings spent in the land of the ’possum and persimmon while yet the steamy breath of the dew was going up to meet the fervor of an April sun, and all the air was heavy with the perfume of the blooming holly, mornings of music from a thousand throats inspired by “the new wine of the year.” At such times one realizes the force of these two lines from Richard Hovey:

Make me over, Mother April,When the sap begins to stir.James Stephen Compton.

A PET SQUIRREL

“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.

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 themDrops 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.

AWAKENING

My heart is glad,And hopes deemed dead now wake to life again.This morn I heard,Ere I to conscious thought returnéd had,The spring song of the sparrows in the rain.– M. Townshend Maltby.