View - Roanoke Colonies Illuminated

Title	walnut trees
Caption	Juglans nigra (Black walnut)
Source	Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. An illustrated flora of the northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions. 3 vols. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. Vol. 1: 579.
Date	1913
URL	http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=JUNI&photoID=juni_001_avd.tif
Creator	NL Britton and A Brown
Type	Drawing
Origin	Internet
Notes	Wall nut trees, Walnuts, walnut trees Juglans nigra L. black walnut1; 1 Radford, et al. (1968) ‘Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas’, Chapel Hill.; ; SUMMARY: Lawson gives the best description.; ; This tree is not the same species as the English walnut commonly sold in the United States. Black walnut is widely distributed in the United States where it is highly prized as a source of furniture grade lumber. It’s importance as a food source for humans is lessened because of it’s extremely hard shell and strong flavor. The English walnut is much preferred for culinary purposes.; Hariet; p.18 Walnuts: “There are two kinds of Walnuts, . . . “ Very abundant in the woods, up to 1/3 walnut trees, harder and thicker shell than English walnut, very oily and sweet, pound with water to make a milk, put into “spoonmeate” to give a more pleasant taste.; http://www.burntmud.com/hickorynuts.htm; [NB VJB – I doubt that walnuts (Juglans) was as frequent a component of the woodlands as indicated by Hariot. The English were not familiar with Hickory (Carya) and I wonder if they referred to both as “walnuts”. Lawson also mentions two forms of walnuts, but he knew the difference between Hickory and Walnut. Whereas I believe that Hariet was using the term ‘walnut’ to also refer to hickory; awson was distinguishing between two species of Juglans, black walnut and butternut.] ; The website above gives excellent illustrations of the process for making ‘milk’ from walnut/hickory nuts.; ; Banister; From: Joseph and Nesta Ewan, Univ. Illinois Press, Urbana, Ill., 1970; John Banister And His Natural History of Virginia 1678-1692. ; LC 77-94395; p. 220; Nux Juglans s[ive] Regia major cortice scabro, & duro, nucleo magno dulci et Oleaginoso C.B. a Ligni colore nigra Virginiensis Park. The Black Wallnut. This that grows in your garden: It’s fruit is round; further up the Country there is another kind, whose fruit is smaller and long. These are brought downe the River by freshes, & sometimes found upon the Rocks at the Falls & elsewhere. Ex hisce contuses lac conficiunt (cum suis cibis miscentes. Fallitur C.B. expropribus conficitur,) et vulgo vocatur Hickerie milk and therefore the Indians call Our Milke Hickerie from the resembelance it beares to theirs.; ; [NB VJB] Banister was residing at the time near Falls of the James (Richmond, Va.).; The smaller, longer fruit mentioned probably referred to Juglans cinerea, butternut, or white hickory.; ; William Bartram (cited on p. 221 in Ewan) Travels, 1791, Pt. 1, Chapt. 4, p.38; “They [the Creek Indians] pound them to pieces, and then cast them into boiling water, which, after passing through fine strainers, preserves the most oil part of the liquid: this they call by a name which signifies Hiccory milk; it is as sweet and rich as fresh cream, and is an ingredient in most of their cookery, especially hominy and corn cakes.” (ed. Harper, 1958, 25).; [NB VJB] The Harper citation, above, is not listed in Ewan’s References. However there is a listing: Harper, Roland M. 1928. “Economic Botany of Alabama”. Geol Surv. of Alabama, Monogr. 9, Pt. 2. The date of the citation on p. 221 of Ewan may be a misprint.; ; Lawson Lists “Wallnutt 99” in his list of Carolina trees sent to Petiver in 1711 and now attached to H.S.159 in the Sloane Herbarium (British Museum, Museum of Natural History). The “99” is a page reference to the first (1709) edition of ‘A New Voyage . . .”; ; We have NOT found a specimen of Black Walnut among Lawson’s plants the Sloane Herbarium. ; ; Lawson mentions Wall-fruit p.115, Walnut tree and walnuts pp. 74, 80, 105, 109.; p.115 Wall-fruit – not related to our walnut tree, refers to fruit trees that can be grown against a wall (espalier).; p.74 “Likewise Walnut, Birch, Beech, Maple, Ash, Bay, Willow, Alder and Holly; in the lowermost Parts innumerable Pines, tall and good for Boards or Masts, . . .”; p.80 “. . . High-Land yielding lofty Oaks, Walnut-Trees, and other useful Timber; . . .”; cor; and the first to distinguish it from the Hiccories, it having a blacker Bark. This Tree grows, in good Land, to a prodigious Bigness. The Wood is very firm and durable, of which Tables and Chests of Drawers are made, and prove very well. Some of this is very knotty, which would the best returns for England, tho’ the Masters of Vessels refuse it, not understanding its Goodness. ‘Tis a very good and durable Wood, to bottom Vessels for Sea withal; and they say, that is never eaten by the Worm. The Nuts have a large Kernal, which is very oily, except lain by, a long time, to mellow. The shell is very thick, as all native Nuts of America are. When it has its yellow outward coat on, it looks and smells much like a Lemon.”; p.109 “The . . . Walnut . . . we have mention’d before.” ; ; Hariot (cited on p. 221 in Ewan); Hariet (1588) reported it.; ; Tradescant the younger (cited on p. 221 in Ewan); May have introduced black walnut to England;

Walnut trees