SG Heritage Dictionary

Walnut [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

A tree and its fruit, of the genus Juglans. The black walnut so called, grows in America, and is indigenous in the southern and middle states, as far north as the Hudson. That is said to be the limit of tis indigenous growth, gut when transplanted, it grows well in the eastern states. In America there are several species of hickory nut, called by this name.

Walnut [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

The fruit or nut of any tree of the genus Juglans; also, the tree, and its timber. The seven or eight known species are all natives of the north temperate zone.

Walnut Encyclopedia Britannica

WALNUT(Juglans), a genus of seven or eight species, natives of the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, some even extending into Mexico and the West Indies. They are all trees, usually of large size, with alternate, stalked, unequally pinnate leaves, and abounding in an aromatic resinous juice. The scars left by the fallen leaves are unusually large and prominent. The buds are not unlike those of the ash; and it frequently happens that in the axils of the leaves, instead of one, several buds may be formed. The utility of this is seen in seasons when the shoot produced from the first bud is killed by frost; then one of the supplementary buds starts into growth, and thus replaces the injured shoot. The flowers are unisexual and monoecious, the numerous males borne in thick catkins proceeding from the side of last year’s shoot. The female flowers are solitary or few in number, and borne on short terminal spikes of the present season’s growth. In the male flower the receptacle is “concrescent” or inseparate from the bract in whose axil it originates. The receptacle is, in consequence, extended more or less horizontally, so that the flowers appear to be placed on the upper surface of horizontally-spreading stalks. The perianth consists of five or six oblong greenish lobes, within which is found a tuft, consisting of a large number of stamens, each of which has a very short filament and an oblong two-lobed anther bursting longitudinally, and surmounted by an oblong lobe, which is the projecting end of the connective. There is usually no trace of ovary in the male flowers, though by exception one may occasionally be formed....

The female flower consists of a cup-like receptacle, inseparate from the ovary, and bearing at its upper part a bract and two bracteoles, uplifted with the receptacle. From the margin of this latter organ springs a perianth of four short lobes. The one-celled ovary is immersed within the receptacular tube, and is surmounted by a short style with two short ribbon-like stigmatic branches. The solitary ovule springs erect from the base of the ovarian cavity. The fruit is a kind of drupe, the fleshy husk of which is the dilated receptacular tube, while the two-valved stone represents the two carpels. The solitary seed has no perisperm or albumen, but has two large and curiously crumpled cotyledons concealing the plumule, the leaves of which, even at this early stage, show traces of pinnae.

The species best known is J. regia, the Common Walnut, a native of the mountains of Greece, of Armenia, of Afghanistan and the north-west Himalayas, and also found in Japan. Traces of the former existence of this or of a very closely-allied species are found in the PostTertiary deposits of Provence and elsewhere, proving the former much wider extension of the species. At the present day the tree is largely cultivated in most temperate countries for the sake of its timber or for its edible nuts. The timber is specially valued for cabinet work and for gunstocks, the beauty of its markings rendering it desirable for the first-named purpose, while its strength and elasticity fit it for the second. The leaves and husk of the fruit are resinous and astringent, and are sometimes used medicinally as well as for dyeing purposes. It is stated that sugar is prepared from the sap in a similar manner to that obtained from the maple Acer saccharinum in Canada. The young fruits are used for pickling. When ripe the seeds are much esteemed as a delicacy, while in France much oil of fine quality is extracted from them by pressure. There are several varieties in cultivation, varying in the degree of hardihood, time of ripening, thickness of shell, size, and other particulars. In the climate of Great Britain a late variety is preferable, as securing the young shoots against injury from frost, to which otherwise they are very subject. The kernel of the large-fruited variety is of very indifferent quality, but its large shells are made use of by the French as trinket-cases.

Among the American species J. nigra, the Black Walnut, is especially noteworthy as a very handsome tree, whose timber is of great value for furniture purposes, but which is now becoming scarce. In Britain it forms a magnificent tree. The White Walnut, J. cinerea, is a smaller tree; its leaves are used medicinally.

Closely allied to the walnuts and sometimes confounded with them are the hickories (see Hickory). See also vol. xii. p. 278.

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 24, p. 333
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