Part 25

Leaves oblanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, acute at apex, remotely serrate except at the gradually narrowed base with small incurved teeth, decurrent on a short stout petiole, thin and firm, dark green and lustrous above, yellow-green, glabrous or puberulous and marked by minute black glandular dots below, 2′—4′ long, ½′—¾′ wide, with a narrow yellow midrib and numerous obscure primary veins arcuate near the thickened and revolute margins, slightly fragrant, gradually deciduous after the end of their first year. Flowers subtended by conspicuous bractlets, those of the two sexes on the same plant; staminate in oblong simple aments often 1′ long, pistillate in shorter aments in the axils of upper leaves, androgynous aments occurring between the two with staminate flowers at their base and pistillate flowers above, or with staminate flowers also mixed with the pistillate at their apex; scales of the aments ovate, acute, coated with pale tomentum; stamens numerous, with oblong slightly emarginate dark red-purple anthers soon becoming yellow; ovary ovoid, with bright red exserted styles. Fruit in short crowded spikes ripening in the early autumn and usually falling during the winter, globose, papillose, dark purple, covered with a thin coat of grayish white wax; seed pale reddish brown, minute.

A tree, occasionally 40° high, with a trunk 14′—15′ in diameter, short slender branches forming a narrow compact round-topped head, and stout branchlets coated at first with loose tomentum, dark green or light or dark red-brown, glabrous or pubescent during their first season, becoming in their second year much roughened by the elevated leaf-scars, darker and ultimately ashy gray; usually smaller at the north and toward the northern and southern limits of its range reduced to a low shrub often only 3°—4° tall. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, about ⅓′ thick, with loosely imbricated ovate acute dark red-brown tomentose scales nearly ½′ long when fully grown and long-persistent on the branch. Bark smooth, compact, 1/16′—⅛′ thick, dark gray or light brown on the surface and dark red-brown internally. Wood heavy, very hard and strong, brittle, close-grained, light rose color, with thick lighter colored sapwood.

Distribution. Ocean sand-dunes and moist hillsides in the vicinity of the coast from the shores of Puget Sound to the neighborhood of Santa Monica, Los Angeles County, California; of its largest size on the shores of the Bay of San Francisco.

Occasionally used in California as a garden plant.

VII. LEITNERIACEÆ.

A tree or shrub, with pale slightly fissured bark, scaly buds, stout terete pithy branchlets marked by pale conspicuous nearly circular lenticels and by elevated crescent-shaped angled or obscurely 3-lobed leaf-scars, very light soft wood, and thick fleshy stoloniferous yellow roots. Leaves involute in the bud, lanceolate to elliptic-lanceolate, acuminate or acute and short-pointed at apex, gradually narrowed at base, entire, with slightly revolute undulate margins, penniveined with remote primary veins arcuate and united near the margins, and conspicuous reticulate veinlets, petiolate, at first coated on the lower surface and on the petioles with thick pale tomentum and puberulous on the upper surface, thick and firm at maturity, bright green and lustrous above, pale and villose-pubescent below, deciduous. Flowers in unisexual aments, with ovate acute concave tomentose scales, the male and female on different plants, opening in early spring from buds formed the previous autumn and covered with acute chestnut-brown hairy scales; the staminate clustered near the end of the branches, their scales bearing on the thickened stipe a ring of 3—12 stamens, with slender incurved filaments and oblong light yellow introrse 2-celled anthers opening longitudinally; perianth 0; pistillate aments scattered, shorter and more slender than the staminate, their scales bearing in their axils a short-stalked pistil surrounded by a rudimentary perianth of small gland-fringed scales, the 2 larger lateral, the others next the axis of the inflorescence; ovary superior, pubescent, 1-celled, with an elongated flattened style inserted obliquely, curving inward above the middle in anthesis, grooved and stigmatic on the inner face; ovule solitary, attached laterally, ascending, semianatropous; micropyle directed upward. Fruit an oblong compressed dry drupe thick and rounded on the ventral, narrowed on the dorsal edge, rounded at base, thin and pointed at apex, chestnut-brown, rugose, with a thick dry exocarp closely investing the thin-walled light brown crustaceous rugose nutlet. Seed flattened, rounded at the ends, light brown, marked on the thick edge with the oblong nearly black hilum; embryo erect, surrounded by thin fleshy albumen; cotyledons oblong, flattened; radicle superior, conical, short, and fleshy.

The family consists of a single genus, _Leitneria_ Chapm., with one species of the southern United States, named for a German naturalist killed in Florida during the Seminole War.

1. Leitneria floridana Chapm. Cork Wood.

Leaves 4′—6′ long, 1½′—2½′ wide, with petioles 1′—2′ in length. Flowers opening at the end of February or early in March; staminate aments 1′—1¼′ long, ¼′ thick, and twice as long as the pistillate. Fruit solitary or in clusters of 2—4, ripening when the leaves are about half grown, ¾′ long, ¼′ wide.

A shrub or small tree, occasionally 20° high, with a slender straight trunk 4′—5′ in diameter above the swollen gradually tapering base, spreading branches forming a loose open head, and branchlets at first light reddish brown and thickly coated with gradually deciduous hairs, becoming in their first winter glabrous or puberulous, especially toward the ends, and dark red-brown. Winter-buds: terminal broad, conic, ⅛′ long, covered by 10 or 12 oblong nearly triangular closely imbricated scales coated with pale tomentum and long-persistent at the base of the branch; lateral scattered, ovoid, flattened. Bark about 1/16′ thick, dark gray faintly tinged with brown, divided by shallow fissures into narrow rounded ridges. Wood soft, exceedingly light, close-grained, the layers of annual growth hardly distinguishable, pale yellow, without trace of heartwood; occasionally used for the floats of fishing-nets.

Distribution. Borders of swamps of the lower Altamaha River, Georgia (_C. L. Boynton_); muddy saline shores on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico near Apalachicola, Florida; swampy prairies, Velasco (_E. J. Palmer_), and swamps of the Brazos River near Columbia, Brazoria County, Texas; Varner, Lincoln County (_B. F. Bush_), and Moark, Clay County (_E. J. Palmer_) Arkansas; and in Butler and Dunklin Counties, southeastern Missouri, here sometimes occupying muddy sloughs of considerable extent to the exclusion of other woody plants.

VIII. JUGLANDACEÆ.

Aromatic trees, with watery juice, terete branchlets, scaly buds, the lateral buds often superposed, 2—4 together, and alternate unequally pinnate deciduous leaves with elongated grooved petioles and without stipules, the leaflets increasing in size from the lowest upward, penniveined, sessile, short-stalked or the terminal usually long-stalked. Flowers monœcious, opening after the unfolding of the leaves, the staminate in lateral aments and composed of a 3—6-lobed calyx in the axil of and adnate to an ovate acute bract, and numerous stamens inserted on the inner and lower face of the calyx in 2 or several rows, with short distinct filaments and oblong anthers opening longitudinally; the pistillate in a spike terminal on a branch of the year and composed of a 1—3-celled ovary subtended by an involucre free toward the apex and formed by the union of an anterior bract and 2 lateral bractlets, a 1 or 4-lobed calyx inserted on the ovary, a short style with 2 plumose stigmas stigmatic on the inner face, and a solitary erect orthotropous ovule. Fruit drupaceous, the exocarp (husk) indehiscent or 4-valved, inclosing a thick- or thin-shelled nut divided by partitions extending inward from the shell, and like the shell more or less penetrated by internal longitudinal cavities often filled with dry powder. Seed solitary, 2-lobed from the apex nearly to the middle, light brown, its coat thin, of 2 layers, without albumen; cotyledons fleshy and oily, sinuose or corrugated, 2-lobed; radicle short, superior, filling the apex of the nut. Of the six genera of the Walnut family two occur in North America.

CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN GENERA.

Aments of staminate flowers simple; husk of the fruit indehiscent; nut sculptured; pith in plates. 1. Juglans. Aments of staminate flowers branched; husk of the fruit 4-valved; nut not sculptured; pith solid. 2. Carya.

1. JUGLANS L. Walnut.

Trees, with furrowed scaly bark, durable dark-colored wood, stout branchlets, laminate pith, terminal buds with 2 pairs of opposite more or less open scales often obscurely pinnate at apex, those of the inner pair more or less leaf-like, and obtuse slightly flattened axillary buds formed before midsummer and covered with 4 ovate rounded scales, closed or open during winter. Leaves with numerous leaflets, and terete petioles leaving in falling large conspicuous elevated obcordate 3-lobed leaf-scars displaying 3 equidistant U-shaped clusters of dark fibro-vascular bundle-scars; leaflets conduplicate in the bud, ovate, acute or acuminate, mostly unequal at base, with veins arcuate and united near the margins. Aments of the staminate flowers many-flowered, elongated, solitary or in pairs from lower axillary buds of upper nodes, appearing from between persistent bud-scales in the autumn and remaining during the winter as short cones covered by the closely imbricated bracts of the flowers; calyx 3—6-lobed, its bract free only at the apex; stamens 8—40, in 2 or several ranks, their anthers surmounted by a conspicuous dilated truncate or lobed connective; pistillate flowers in few-flowered spikes, their involucre villose, free only at the apex and variously cut into a laciniate border (_corolla?_) shorter than the erect calyx-lobes; ovary rarely of 3 carpels; stigmas club-shaped, elongated, fimbriately plumose. Fruit ovoid, globose or pyriform, round or obscurely 4-angled, with a fleshy indehiscent glabrate or hirsute husk; nut ovoid or globose, more or less flattened, hard, thick-walled, longitudinally and irregularly rugose, the valves alternate with the cotyledons, and more or less ribbed along the dorsal sutures and in some species also on the marginal sutures. Seed more or less compressed, gradually narrowed or broad and deeply lobed at base, with conspicuous dark veins radiating from the apex and from the minute basal hilum.

Juglans is confined to temperate North America, the West Indies, South America from Venezuela to Peru, western and northern China, Korea, Manchuria, Japan, and Formosa. Eleven species are known. Of exotic species _Juglans regia_ L., an inhabitant probably originally of China, is cultivated in the middle Atlantic and southern states and largely in California for its edible nuts, which are an important article of commerce. The wood of several species is valued for the interior finish of houses and for furniture.

_Juglans_, from Jupiter and glands, is the classical name of the Walnut-tree.

CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES.

Fruit racemose; nut 4-ribbed at the sutures with smaller intermediate ribs, 2-celled at the base; heartwood light brown; leaflets 11—17, oblong-lanceolate. 1. J. cinerea (A, C). Fruit usually solitary or in pairs; nut without sutural ribs, 4-celled at the base; heartwood dark brown. Nuts prominently and irregularly ridged with often interrupted ridges; leaflets 15—23, ovate-lanceolate. 2. J. nigra (A, C). Nuts more or less deeply longitudinally grooved. Nuts up to 1½′ in diameter; leaflets 9—13, rarely 19, oblong-lanceolate to ovate, acuminate, coarsely serrate. 3. J. major (F, H). Nuts not more than ¾′ in diameter. Leaflets 17—23, narrow-lanceolate, long-pointed. 4. J. rupestris (C). Leaflets 11—15 or rarely 19, oblong-lanceolate, acute or acuminate, the lower often rounded at the apex. 5. J. californica (G). Nuts obscurely or not at all grooved, up to 2′ in diameter; leaflets 15—19, ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, long-pointed. 6. J. Hindsii (G).

1. Juglans cinerea L. Butternut.

Leaves 15′—30′ long, with stout pubescent petioles, and 11—17 oblong-lanceolate acute or acuminate leaflets 2′—3′ long, 1½′—2′ wide, finely serrate except at the unequal rounded base, glandular and sticky as they unfold, at maturity thin, yellow-green and rugose above, pale and soft-pubescent below; turning yellow or brown and falling early in the autumn. Flowers: staminate in thick aments 3′—5′ long; calyx usually 6-lobed, light yellow-green, puberulous on the outer surface, ¼′ long, its bract rusty-pubescent, acute at apex; stamens 8—12, with nearly sessile dark brown anthers and slightly lobed connectives; pistillate in 6—8-flowered spikes, constricted above the middle, about ⅓′ long, its bract and bractlets coated with sticky white or pink glandular hairs and rather shorter than the linear-lanceolate calyx-lobes; stigmas bright red, ½′ long. Fruit in 3—5 fruited drooping clusters, obscurely 2 or rarely 4-ridged, ovoid-oblong, coated with rusty clammy matted hairs, 1½′—2½′ long with a thick husk; nut ovoid, abruptly contracted and acuminate at apex, with 4 prominent and 4 narrow less conspicuous ribs, light brown, deeply sculptured between the ribs into thin broad irregular longitudinal plates, 2-celled at the base and 1-celled above the middle; seed sweet, very oily, soon becoming rancid.

A tree, occasionally 100° high, with a tall straight trunk 2°—3° in diameter, and sometimes free of branches for half its height; more frequently divided 20° or 30° above the ground into many stout limbs spreading horizontally and forming a broad low symmetrical round-topped head, and dark orange-brown or bright green rather lustrous branchlets coated at first with rufous pubescence, covered more or less thickly with pale lenticels, gradually becoming puberulous, brown tinged with red or orange in their second year and marked by light gray leaf-scars with large black fibro-vascular bundle-scars and elevated bands of pale tomentum separating them from the lowest axillary bud. Winter-buds: terminal ½′—⅔′ long, ¼′ wide, flattened and obliquely truncate at apex, their outer scales coated with short pale pubescence; axillary buds ovoid, flattened, rounded at apex, ⅛′ long, covered with rusty brown or pale pubescence. Bark of young stems and of the branches smooth and light gray, becoming on old trees ¾′—1′ thick, light brown, deeply divided into broad ridges separating on the surface into small appressed plate-like scales. Wood light, soft, not strong, coarse-grained, light brown, turning darker with exposure, with thin light-colored sapwood composed of 5 or 6 layers of annual growth; largely employed in the interior finish of houses, and for furniture. The inner bark possesses mild cathartic properties. Sugar is made from the sap, and the green husks of the fruit are used to dye cloth yellow or orange color.

Distribution. Rich moist soil near the banks of streams and on low rocky hills, southern New Brunswick to the valley of the St. Lawrence River in Ontario, the northern peninsular of Michigan, southern Minnesota, eastern South Dakota, eastern Iowa, southeastern Nebraska, and southward to central Kansas, northern Arkansas, Delaware, eastern Virginia, and on the Appalachian Mountains and their foothills to northern Georgia; in northern Alabama, southern Illinois and western Tennessee; most abundant northward.

Occasionally cultivated.

× _Juglans quadrangulata_ A. Rehd., a natural hybrid of _J. cinerea_ and the so-called English Walnut (_J. regia_) is not uncommon in eastern Massachusetts, and a hybrid of _J. cinerea_ with the Japanese _J. Sieboldiana_ Maxm. has appeared in the United States.

2. Juglans nigra L. Black Walnut.

Leaves 1°—2° long, with pubescent petioles, and 15—23 ovate-lanceolate leaflets 3′—3½′ long, 1′—1¼′ wide, long-pointed, sharply serrate except at the more or less rounded often unequal base, thin, bright yellow-green, lustrous and glabrous above, soft-pubescent below, especially along the slender midrib and primary veins; turning bright clear yellow in the autumn before falling. Flowers: staminate in stout puberulous aments 3′—5′ long, calyx rotund, 6-lobed, with nearly orbicular lobes concave and pubescent on the outer surface, its bract ¼′ long, nearly triangular, coated with rusty brown or pale tomentum; stamens 20—30, arranged in many series, with nearly sessile purple and truncate connectives; pistillate in 2—5 flowered spikes, ovoid, gradually narrowed at the apex, ¼′ long, their bract and bractlets coated below with pale glandular hairs and green and puberulous above, sometimes irregularly cut into a laciniate border, or reduced to an obscure ring just below the apex of the ovary; calyx-lobes ovate, acute, light green, puberulous on the outer, glabrous or pilose on the inner surface; stigmas yellow-green tinged on the margins with red, ½′—¾′ long. Fruit solitary or in pairs, globose, oblong and pointed at apex, or slightly pyriform, light yellow-green, roughened by clusters of short pale articulate hairs, 1½′—2′ in diameter, with a thick husk; nut oval or oblong, slightly flattened, 1⅛′—1½′ in diameter, dark brown tinged with red, deeply divided on the outer surface into thin or thick often interrupted irregular ridges, 4-celled at base and slightly 2-celled at the apex; seed sweet, soon becoming rancid.

A tree, frequently 100° and occasionally 150° high, with a straight trunk often clear of branches for 50°—60° and 4°—6° in diameter, thick limbs spreading gradually and forming a comparatively narrow shapely round-topped head of mostly upright rigid branches, and stout branchlets covered at first with pale or rusty matted hairs, dull orange-brown and pilose or puberulous during their first winter, marked by raised conspicuous orange-colored lenticels and elevated pale leaf-scars, gradually growing darker and ultimately light brown. Winter-buds: terminal ovoid, slightly flattened, obliquely rounded at apex, coated with pale silky tomentum, ⅓′ long, with usually 4 obscurely pinnate scales; axillary ⅛′ long, tomentose, their outer scales opening at the apex during the winter. Bark of young stems and branches light brown and covered with thin scales, becoming on old trees 2′—3′ thick, dark brown slightly tinged with red, and deeply divided into broad rounded ridges broken on the surface into thick appressed scales. Wood heavy, hard, strong, rather coarse-grained, very durable, rich dark brown, with thin lighter colored sapwood of 10—20 layers of annual growth; largely used in cabinet-making, the interior finish of houses, gun-stocks, air-planes, and in boat and shipbuilding.

Distribution. Rich bottom-lands and fertile hillsides, western Massachusetts to southern Ontario, southern Michigan, southeastern Minnesota, central and northern Nebraska, central Kansas, eastern Oklahoma, and southward to western Florida, central Alabama and Mississippi, and the valley of the San Antonio River, Texas; most abundant in the region west of the Alleghany Mountains, and of its largest size on the western slopes of the high mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee, and on the fertile river bottom-lands of southern Illinois and Indiana, southwestern Arkansas, and Oklahoma; largely destroyed for its valuable timber, and now rare.

Occasionally cultivated as an ornamental tree in the eastern United States, and in western and central Europe. × _Juglans intermedia_ Carr., a natural hybrid, of _J. nigra_ with the so-called English Walnut (_J. regia_) has appeared in the United States and Europe, and on the banks of the James River in Virginia has grown to a larger size than any other recorded Walnut-tree. In California a hybrid, known as “Royal,” between _J. nigra_ and _J. Hindsii_ has been artificially produced.

3. Juglans major Hell. Nogal.

_Juglans rupestris_ var. _major_ Torr. _Juglans rupestris_ Sarg., in part, not Engelm.

Leaves 8′—12′ long, with slender pubescent petioles and rachis, and 9—13 rarely 19 oblong-lanceolate to ovate acuminate often slightly falcate coarsely serrate leaflets cuneate or rounded at base, coated when they first appear with scurfy pubescence, soon becoming glabrous, or at maturity slightly pubescent on the midrib below, 3′—4′, or those of the lower pairs 1½′—2′ long, and 1′—1½′ wide, thin, yellow-green, with a thin conspicuous yellow midrib and primary veins. Flowers: staminate in slender puberulous or pubescent aments 8′—10′ long; calyx nearly orbicular, long-stalked, pale yellow-green, 5 or 6-lobed, the lobes ovate, acute, hoary pubescent on the outer surface, their bract acute, coated with thick pale tomentum; stamens 30—40, with nearly sessile yellow anthers, and slightly divided connectives; pistillate not seen. Fruit subglobose to slightly ovoid or oblong, abruptly contracted at apex into a short point (_J. elæopyren_ Dode), densely tomentose when half grown, 1′—1½′ in diameter, with a thin husk covered with close rufous pubescence; nut dark brown or black, slightly compressed, usually rather broader than high, or ovoid, rounded or bluntly acute at apex, rounded and sometimes depressed at base, longitudinally grooved with broad deep grooves, thick shelled; seed small and sweet.

A tree sometimes 50° high, with a straight trunk occasionally 3°—4° in diameter, or divided at the ground into several large stems, stout branches forming a narrow head, and slender branchlets thickly coated when they first appear with rufous pubescence, becoming red-brown, pubescent or puberulous and marked by many small pale lenticels at the end of their first season and ashy gray the following year.

Distribution. Banks of streams in the cañons of central and southern New Mexico and Arizona, and on Oak Creek near Flagstaff, Arizona on the Colorado plateau (_P. Lowell_).

4. Juglans rupestris Engelm. Walnut.