_A large tree, 50 to 120 feet high, with spreading branches and rough bark, darker in color than that of the butternut. The buds are gray instead of light brown like those of the butternut, and they are shorter. The twigs are smooth in winter, without hair, and the pith is chambered. Alternate, conspicuous leaf-scars. Characteristic difference between the two trees is that the fringe of hair over the leaf-scar in the butternut is absent in the black walnut._ The black walnut is a striking contrast to the butternut. It is tall and erect, with a broad, spacious head and vigorous, wide-spreading branches. The bark is much darker and rougher than that of the butternut, and the buds are smaller, and gray rather than yellowish in color, like those of the other species. [Illustration: BLACK WALNUT _Juglans nigra_ Page 48 ] [Illustration: TRUNK OF A BLACK WALNUT Page 49 ] The wood is heavy, strong, and durable, and dark brown in color. It takes polish well and is much used in cabinet making, boat-building, interior house finishing, and for gunstocks and coffins. A valuable wood in many ways, but the passing of the fashion for black walnut furniture is not to be regretted. It has been cut most recklessly in our forests during the last twenty-five years, and already it has been almost exterminated in the Mississippi Basin. Individual trees are now sold where there used to be whole tracts of black walnut forests. In Tennessee last year, dealers were buying stumps of old walnut trees which had been left when the trees were first cut, in the early days of the lumber trade. Each stump brought more money than the whole tree originally sold for. Its fruit is edible, and an oil is made from its kernels. A kind of bread has also been made from the kernels of these nuts, and the husks are used as a dye. The black walnut is found growing wild in the Northeastern States, but it is more common west than east of the Alleghanies. The English walnut, _Juglans regia_, originally came from Persia, and is sometimes cultivated here. An interesting cross between the English walnut and our native butternut is found on the north side of Houghton’s Pond in the Blue Hills, Massachusetts. Only a few of these hybrids are known to exist, and all of them are said to grow in the vicinity of Boston. [Sidenote: Shagbark; or Shellbark Hickory _Hicoria ovata_] _A tall, stately tree, 70 to 90 feet high; unmistakable on account of its rough, flaking bark, which shags off in large plates. Yellowish brown buds, with two outer dark scales, which also shag characteristically. Coarse twigs; alternate leaf-scars. The husk of the nut splits and breaks off._