acute angle, small, ovoid, pubescent; frequently two superposed. Pith large, brown, with narrow chambers and thick plates.
Distribution
According to Maximowicz it occurs throughout the whole of Japan, there being large trees around temples at Hakodate. At Miadzi, in Kiusiu, it is wild on the sides of mountain streams, being a tree of about eighteen inches in diameter. It is also supposed to occur in the island of Saghalien, as nuts cast up by the sea were found there by F. Schmidt.
Sargent[1] says that Juglans Sieboldiana is a common forest tree in Yezo and the mountainous regions of the other islands of Japan. Specimens more than 50 feet high are uncommon. It is a wide-branched tree, resembling the butternut in habit and in the colour of its pale furrowed bark. The walnuts of this species are an important article of food in Japan, as the nuts are exposed for sale in great quantities in the markets of all the northern towns.
Elwes collected specimens at Asahigawa in central Yezo, and noted that it was always a small tree, 20 to 30 feet in height by a foot in girth. He also saw it near Nikko, but never of any size. It is called Kurumi. The wood, though used to some extent in Japan for gun-stocks and ornamental work, does not take a high place among the valuable timbers of the country. It was not included in the collection of woods exhibited at St. Louis.
Cultivation
Juglans Sieboldiana was introduced from Japan into Leyden about the year 1860 by Siebold, and was sent from there to Segrez in 1866, under the name of Juglans ailantifolia. At Segrez it passed unscathed through the severe winter of 1879–1880, which proved fatal there to the common walnut.
According to Sargent this species is perfectly hardy in New England, where it ripens its fruit. It is not worth growing there as an ornamental tree; but it will produce fruit in regions of greater winter cold than the common walnut can support, and may find some place in planting as a fruit tree.
The largest specimen we know of in these islands is at Belgrove, Queenstown, Ireland, the residence of W. E. Gumbleton, Esq. It was, in 1903, 24 feet in height by 2 feet 9 inches in girth. There are specimens at Kew about 12 feet high, which were grown from seed received in 1894. There is also a small plant at Gunnersbury House, Middlesex, which has borne fruit. (A.H.)
- ↑ Forest Flora of Japan, 60 (1894).
