Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1886-05-14
THE BUTTERNUT.
From Michauxs "The North Ameri
SYLVIA

From Mchaux's "The North American
sylvia"
This species of walnut is known in
North America under different denomin-
ations. In Massachusetts, New Hamp-
shire and Vermont it bears the name of
oilnut: in Pennsylvania and Maryland
and on the banks of the Ohio it is gener-
ally known by that of white walnut: in
Connecticut. New York. New Jersey.
Virginia and in the mountainous districts
i'll the upper part of the CarOlinas it is
called butternut. The last of these
wholly unknown in those parts of the
United States where the others are in
general use, and because the wood is en-
plOycd in the neighborhoOd of New York
where. think also that the Latin speci-
fic name CothaHjco, which was long
since given it by DR.. Cutler of MaSsa-
chusetts, should be detnitiveIv SubStitu-
ted for that of Ci0erea, by which it has
hitherto been distinguished among botan-
lists. This last appelation, derived from
the color of the secondary branches,
whose bark is smooth and grayish, sug-
gests only an uninportant characteristic.
while the first expresses one of the most
interesting properties of the tree.
The butternut is found in Upper and
Lower Canada, in the district of Maine.
-I,1 IS I IL -
of Kentucky and Tennessee and on the
banks of the Missouri; but have never
met it in the lower part of the Carolinas,
of Georgia and of East Florida, where
the nature of the soil and the intemper-
ate heat of the summer are unfavorable
to its vegetation. In cold regions. on
the contrary, its growth is luxuriant; in
the State of Vermont, where the winter
is so rigorous that sledges are used dur
ing four months of the year, this tree at
tans IA circumference of eight or ten feet.
| have nowhere seen it more abundant
than in the bottoms which border the
Ohio between Wheeling and Marietta
but the thickness of these forests. which
are hardly penetrated by the sun, APP
pears to prevent its utmost expansion. |
have seen here no trees so large as some
in New Jersey, on the steep and elevated
banks of the Hudson, nearly opposite To
the city of New York. The woods in
this place are thin and the soil cold. I'M
productive and interspersed with large
rocks. in the interstices of which the big
gest butternuts have their root | have
measured some of them which, at five
feet from the ground. were ten or twelve
feet in circumference and which were
fifty feet in height, with roots extending
even with the surface of the ground in
serpentine direction and with little varia-
ton in size, to the distance of forty feet.
The trunk ramities, at a small height,
and the branches, seeking a direction
more horizontal than those of other trees
and spreading widely, form large and
tufted head, which gives the tree a re-
markable appearance.
! The buds of the butternut, like those
of the black walnut, are uncovered. In
the spring its vegetation is forward and
its leaves unfold fortnight earlier than
those of the hickory. Each leaf is COM
posed of seven or eight pair of sessile
leaflets and terminated by petiolated
odd one. The leaflets are from two to
thee inches in length, lanceolate, serrate
and slightly downy. The barren flowers
stand on large, cylindrical aments, which
are single, four or five inches long and
attached to the shoots of the preceding
year; the fertile flowers, on the contrary,