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<v Speaker 1>Chapter eight of ten Common Trees. This is a LibriVox recording.

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<v Speaker 1>All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more

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<v Speaker 1>information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording

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<v Speaker 1>by Kimberly Sassen. Ten Common Trees by Susan Stokes, Chapter eight,

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<v Speaker 1>The little walnut. Once upon a time there was a

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<v Speaker 1>little nut. It lived in a green house upon the

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<v Speaker 1>top of a high tree. Figure one. The house was

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<v Speaker 1>a sticky affair on the outside, and had neither door

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<v Speaker 1>nor windows. Still, it was cozy and warm, for as

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<v Speaker 1>you see, it had a tough husk for an outer wall.

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<v Speaker 1>Next to this was a bony shell, and clear inside

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<v Speaker 1>was the little nut. Figure two. There were two rooms

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<v Speaker 1>into which its two leaves fitted. Their walls were crumpled,

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<v Speaker 1>and the little nut pressed out just as far as

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<v Speaker 1>it could and filled all the crannies. This little nut

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<v Speaker 1>was five months old, for it had arrived upon the

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<v Speaker 1>tree in May. Now, if you will look at a

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<v Speaker 1>walnut tree in May, you will find it has made

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<v Speaker 1>ready a great many homes for nut babies. They don't

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<v Speaker 1>look just like the full grown house first, because they

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<v Speaker 1>are not any larger than a grain of rice. And second,

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<v Speaker 1>because they have two top knots, perhaps we had better

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<v Speaker 1>call them chimneys. Here is a group of these nut

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<v Speaker 1>houses Fig. Three. You can find them in the tip

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<v Speaker 1>of a branch, just after the leaves unroll. The round

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<v Speaker 1>part is sticky, but the chimneys are hairy, and if

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<v Speaker 1>you look very closely, you can see that they have

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<v Speaker 1>been dusted over with a yellow powder, and there is

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<v Speaker 1>a slight frill at the neck. Fig. Four. I have

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<v Speaker 1>sometimes cut down into the house through the chimney and

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<v Speaker 1>found where the grains had made their way through the

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<v Speaker 1>chimney into a little room at the bottom. In the

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<v Speaker 1>little room was an egg cell. When the pollen grain

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<v Speaker 1>reaches it, the little egg cell wakes up and begins

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<v Speaker 1>to grow. It grows and grows until it becomes the

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<v Speaker 1>kernel of a nut. I think you would like to

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<v Speaker 1>know where the little pollen grain the walnut's fairy prints

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<v Speaker 1>came from. It was probably carried by the wind from

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<v Speaker 1>another tree, although we find both stamens and pistols on

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<v Speaker 1>the same tree. It came from a queer little flower

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<v Speaker 1>that has thirty or forty pockets full of gold dust.

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<v Speaker 1>The little flower doesn't look much like a flower it

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<v Speaker 1>seems to be a little shelf holding eight or ten

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<v Speaker 1>little stamens, each of which has four pockets. Fig. Five.

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<v Speaker 1>The little shelves grow in clusters in tail like catkins. Fig. Six.

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<v Speaker 1>There are from twenty to forty flowers in a catkin,

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<v Speaker 1>and a very great many catkins on a single tree.

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<v Speaker 1>The catkins do not grow in the tip of the branch,

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<v Speaker 1>but stand out from the sides farther back. They are

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<v Speaker 1>always green in color, and disappear after the wind carries

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<v Speaker 1>away the pollen. They were very different from the little

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<v Speaker 1>nuts high up in the tree. The little nuts kept

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<v Speaker 1>on growing. The winds rocked them to and fro the

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<v Speaker 1>rains washed their sticky walls, and the mother tree kept

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<v Speaker 1>adding to the food supply in the little leaves. By

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<v Speaker 1>and by October came and with it a high wind

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<v Speaker 1>which whisked own nut house and all down into a corner.

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<v Speaker 1>But the same wind also carried the leaves about and

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<v Speaker 1>covered the nut with a warm blanket. Then the clouds

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<v Speaker 1>gathered and the white snow fell. The little nut slept

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<v Speaker 1>under the snow, but when the ground froze deep down,

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<v Speaker 1>it cracked the nut's shell. After a while, the nut

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<v Speaker 1>awoke and began to use the food the mother tree

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<v Speaker 1>had put in its leaves. It was thirsty too, and

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<v Speaker 1>was glad to drink the melting snow. So it ate

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<v Speaker 1>and drank and began to grow. The two rooms of

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<v Speaker 1>its house became too small for it, and it pushed

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<v Speaker 1>out a tiny which turned into the ground. By and by.

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<v Speaker 1>The little root was so busy getting water, and the

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<v Speaker 1>little nut was so busy using it that a long

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<v Speaker 1>green sprout sprang out from between the two leaves, pushed

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<v Speaker 1>through the old leaves above out into the sunlight, where

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<v Speaker 1>it opened out into a green leaf. It was a

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<v Speaker 1>long green leaf made up of many separate leaflets, a

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<v Speaker 1>great many pairs of them. Then it put out another

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<v Speaker 1>and another, and you could see that it was going

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<v Speaker 1>to be a walnut tree. If you would like to

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<v Speaker 1>see one like it, look under the walnut trees. In

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<v Speaker 1>the spring fig. Seven, after the young tree had put

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<v Speaker 1>out several leaves, it took a rest, and when October

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<v Speaker 1>came I found it with a hood on the end

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<v Speaker 1>of the stem. The hood was made from leaves which

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<v Speaker 1>did not grow long, but which remained short and dark.

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<v Speaker 1>These were the bud scales, and they covered the winter bud.

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<v Speaker 1>Then it dropped the leaves it had put out in

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<v Speaker 1>the spring, and passed the winter as a bare twig.

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<v Speaker 1>In the spring it dropped the bud scales and made

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<v Speaker 1>some more green leaves, And then again it made a

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<v Speaker 1>winter bud. Each year it added a few inches to

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<v Speaker 1>its height and a few leaves to the ends of

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<v Speaker 1>its branches. Each year it added a layer to its

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<v Speaker 1>bark and made new winter buds. So it became a tall,

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<v Speaker 1>young tree with strength to spare. And in the spring

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<v Speaker 1>it fashioned houses for new nuts and catkins, which should

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<v Speaker 1>shed pollen dust. Just as the mother tree had stored

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<v Speaker 1>food in its seed leaves, it now stored food in

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<v Speaker 1>the leaves of its own seed children. The tree grew

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<v Speaker 1>tall and beautiful in its forest home. Its umbrella like

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<v Speaker 1>head was lifted some sixty feet into the bright sunshine.

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<v Speaker 1>Its plume like leaves waved in the breeze for a

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<v Speaker 1>hundred summers more. And then there came a change. On

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<v Speaker 1>the edge of the forest. There sprang up a little town.

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<v Speaker 1>The hum of the sawmill frightened away the birds by

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<v Speaker 1>and by the land was all cleared, and the daisies

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<v Speaker 1>plowed under, and the tree I suspect it passed through

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<v Speaker 1>the sawmill. The walnut family. The walnut tree whose story

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<v Speaker 1>I have told is the American black walnut. It has

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<v Speaker 1>been so highly valued for its beautiful dark wood that

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<v Speaker 1>the forests, once very abundant in the Mississippi Valley, have

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<v Speaker 1>almost entirely disappeared. Fortunately, it is now being planted and

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<v Speaker 1>cultivated for future use. Although it grows very slowly. It

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<v Speaker 1>is distinguished from other walnuts by its long leaf with

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<v Speaker 1>fifteen to twenty three leaflets, its dark wood, and the nut,

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<v Speaker 1>which is nearly black with sharply cut ridges. The white

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<v Speaker 1>walnut or butternut is also prized for its wood, which

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<v Speaker 1>is reddish in color, but not so desirable as black walnut.

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<v Speaker 1>It has a shorter leaf with from nine to seventeen leaflets.

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<v Speaker 1>The base of its fuzzy stem is shaped like a horseshoe.

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<v Speaker 1>The nut is oblong and pointed at the tip, and

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<v Speaker 1>the kernel is much valued. The English or European walnut

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<v Speaker 1>is frequently cultivated in the mild portions of the United States.

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<v Speaker 1>It has short leaves with five to nine leaflets. Fig. Eight.

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<v Speaker 1>The thin shelled nut separates easily from the husk when

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<v Speaker 1>dry they are common in the market. The hickories are

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<v Speaker 1>closely related to the walnuts by their leaves, flowers, and

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<v Speaker 1>nuts with a bony partition. They are separated from the

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<v Speaker 1>walnuts on account of the husk. The husk of the

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<v Speaker 1>walnut is continuous of one piece. The husk of the

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<v Speaker 1>hickory opens by four distinct valves. The shag bark or

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<v Speaker 1>hickory is a tall, spreading tree with bark which breaks

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<v Speaker 1>away in long strips and has light colored wood. The

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<v Speaker 1>leaves have usually five leaflets, which are several inches in length.

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<v Speaker 1>The nut is thin, walled, whitish, and slightly flattened. The

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<v Speaker 1>big shell bark has a larger leaf with from seven

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<v Speaker 1>to nine leaflets, which are downy on the under side.

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<v Speaker 1>The young twigs are slightly orange colored. The nut is

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<v Speaker 1>larger and pointed at both ends. The pecan is the

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<v Speaker 1>species found in the south. It grows to a greater

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<v Speaker 1>height than the northern forms. The leaves are longer, with

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<v Speaker 1>from nine to fifteen pointed leaflets, and the husk is

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<v Speaker 1>thin with yellowish threads. It opens by four valves, dropping

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<v Speaker 1>the nut but not the husk. The nut is oblong,

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<v Speaker 1>about an inch in length. Smooth and thin shelled. The

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<v Speaker 1>kernel is sweet and of excellent flavor. Reference Seed Babies,

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<v Speaker 1>Margaret Morley, Nuts Falling Foster in Child's Garden of Song,

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<v Speaker 1>Succession of Forest Trees, the rough end of chapter eight