CHAPTER VI.

NUTS.-WALNUT; CHESNUT; HAZEL-NUT.

a, Walnut. b. Chesnut. c. Hazel-nut.

NUTS, properly so called, are hard dry fruits, containing one or two seeds, and not in any degree fleshy or pulpy. They are often surrounded by a leafy or woody husk, which is called the involucre, enlarged as a covering to the fruit. The kernels of all the esculent nuts are considered as being very nutritious, on account of the quantity of oil that they contain ; but on that account they are less digestible than any other vegetable matters. As some of the principal kinds have been already described with considerable minuteness as trees, a very brief account of such will be given.

THE WALNUT-Juglans regia.

The nuts of this tree have, when perfectly ripe, a very agreeable flavour; and the tree being besides exceedingly valuable as timber, and highly ornamental, it is well worthy of cultivation. In this

respect its properties are fully noticed in the preceding part on Timber Trees.' The walnuts of commerce are many of them obtained from warmer countries; but were sufficient attention paid to walnut plantations, an abundant supply might be obtained in all the southern parts of England. In some parts of Scotland walnuts come to maturity, but they are by no means general. In the unripe state, walnuts make an agreeable pickle; and an indelible olive dye is obtained from the pericarp of the ripe fruit. The nut of the hickery (Juglans alba) is small and of little value; and though the nut of the black walnut of Virginia (Juglans nigra) is large, the kernel is very small. It is, however, sweet.

Walnuts or chesnuts may be preserved through the winter, by pitting them in the earth, as is done with potatoes.

THE CHESNUT-Castanea vesca.

The chesnut has a prickly involucre, and the nuts grow in a lengthened clustre, upon twigs. The kernel is large, and enveloped in a tough coat of a tint so peculiar, as to give its name to a particular kind of colour. When raw, the chesnut has a slight trace of walnut taste; but it is much inferior. Roasted, it becomes farinaceous, and resembles a mealy potatoe. The chesnut is, indeed, the most farinaceous, and the least oily, of all the nuts; and therefore, though it may not be so nutritious, it is more easy of digestion.

In the southern parts of the Continent, chesnuts grow so abundantly as to form a very large portion of the food of the common people, who, besides eating them both raw and roasted, form them into puddings and cakes, and even bread. The chesnut produces abundantly in the warmer parts of England; but though the tree grows in Scotland, the fruit seldom comes to maturity there.

The best kinds of chesnuts are grafted. The late Sir Joseph Banks had some brought from Devonshire to his house at Spring Grove, which bore most plentifully the fruit was smaller than the Spanish chesnut, but much sweeter.

THE HAZEL-NUT-Corylus,

Of this nut there are several species and varieties. The common hazel (Corylus avellana) has the nut small and short; but the tree grows more easily than the filbert, being found wild not only in forests and commons in England, and especially upon the banks of dingles and ravines, but occurring in extensive tracts in the more northern and mountainous parts of the country. Several places, whose soil suits its growth, are called after the hazel, such as Haselmere, Haselbur, &c. The common hazel is seldom cultivated as a fruit-tree, though perhaps its nuts are superior in flavour to the others, which are more inviting in size.

The filberts, both the red and the white, and the cob-nut, are merely varieties of the common hazel; and have been produced partly by the superiority of soil and climate where they grow, and partly by culture. The filbert is not thicker than the common nut, but it is at least double the length, and has the kernel large in proportion. The cob-nut is the largest of the species, and it is round. The cluster-nut differs from the others only in the fruit being produced in large clusters at the ends of the branches. A particular form of tree receives in some parts of the country (especially in Kent, where the culture of the filbert is carried on with advantage) the name of the dwarf productive nut, though that name indicates rather the mode in which the tree is trained than the variety to which it belongs. Generally speaking, the filbert is but a low grower; but still considerable

ingenuity is exerted in keeping it down,-it having been found by general experience that the dwarfing of fruit trees is the most effectual means of ensuring a large and uniform crop, and fruit of superior quality. The trees that are dwarfed are not allowed to exceed seven feet in height; and they are trimmed in the form of a goblet, with an open centre, as is generally done with well-managed gooseberry trees. When the tree comes into proper bearing, this goblet has attained a diameter of about six feet, which is every season covered with filberts both outside and inside. The nuts are of excellent quality; and it is found by comparison, that a tree treated in this manner, with the ground regularly hoed and cleaned, will produce more than three which are planted in a hedge-row or coppice, and allowed to run wild in the usual manner.

There is something singular in the flowering of the hazel: the male catkin makes its appearance in autumn, and continues to increase till spring, at which time the female ovaries, that are to produce the nuts, make their appearance: this takes place as early as February, and before there is yet a leaf upon the deciduous trees; so that, besides its advantages as a fruit, the filbert may be regarded as an ornamental tree, at that season when groves and coppices have the least beauty.

The word filbert is a corruption of the original English name for this nut, full-beard-which was applied to the large and fringed husk, to distinguish it from the closer covering of the common hazel. Our old poet, Gower, assigns a more classical origin to the name:

"Phillis

Was shape into a nutte-tree,
That all men it might see;
And after Phillis, Philberd
This tree was cleped *."

*Confessio Amantis.

The Constantinople nut (Corylus colurna) is a superior nut to even the best variety of the hazel. Its flavour is equal, and its size is more than double. It is a round nut, invested with a deep calyx, or involucre, which covers it almost entirely, and is very much lobed and fringed at its extremity.

L'Ecluse, a distinguished gardener, brought the nuts of the Corylus colurna from Constantinople, in 1582; and Linnæus states, that in the Botanical Garden at Leyden there was growing, in 1736, a fine tree of this species, planted by L'Ecluse. cultivated in England by Ray, in 1666. This tree grows naturally in the neighbourhood of Constantinople.

It was

The American nut (Corylus americana) is a beautiful species, extensively spread over North America, and which has been cultivated in the neighbourhood of Paris.

The involucra and bottoms of the nuts of all the species and varieties of Corylus are extremely austere and astringent when in their green state; and it is doubtful whether they might not then be profitably employed either in the tanning of leather, or perhaps for the same purposes as galls.

The Spanish nuts of the shops are fresh nuts from Spain; the Barcelona nuts are another variety, kilndried before exportation.

THE CAROB-TREE (Ceratonia siliqua),

It

which grows extensively in the south of Europe, particularly in some provinces of Spain, of which Valencia is the principal, bears a fruit called the carob bean, which is an important article of commerce. is chiefly used for the feeding of cattle; but furnishes a nutritive aliment to the poor in times when there is a scarcity of bread-corn.