Wild Nuts. Black Walnuts
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Vii Wild Food On The Trail
Of all the wild-growing foods, nuts are, perhaps, the most nutritious.
The _black walnut_, not plentiful in the Atlantic States but abundant in
the Middle States and in the Mississippi Valley, has a rich, wild
flavor, and a deep-brown stain for the hands that tear it from its
ball-like covering of tough, pimply green which forms the outer husk.
The nut is sometimes oblong, sometimes almost round, with a deeply
grooved, hard, brown shell. It grows in pairs or solitary. The tree is
large, often reaching the height of one hundred feet, and its trunk is
from four to six feet in diameter. The bark is dark brown with deep
vertical grooves and its surface is broken with thick scales. The leaves
are compound, growing on a middle stem which is sometimes two feet long.
Each leaflet is a narrow oval, sharply pointed at the end, and usually
about three inches long. The nuts require frost to ripen them.