ft
enough for him to penetrate.

Ovid has left a charming little poem, _Nucis Elegia_--the plaint of
the Walnut tree--because beaten with sticks and pelted with stones,
in return for the generosity with which it bestows on mankind its
fair produce.

A valuable medicinal Spirit is distilled by druggists from the fruit of
the Walnut. It is an admirable remedy for spasmodic indigestion,
and to relieve the morning sickness of pregnancy. A teaspoonful of
the spirit (_Spiritus nucis juglandis_) may be given with half a
wine-glassful of water every hour or two, for most forms of
sickness, and the dose may be increased if necessary.

"Nucin," or "juglon," is the active chemical principle of the several
parts of the tree and its fruit.

The leaves, when slightly rubbed, emit a rich aromatic odour, which
renders them proof against the attacks of insects. Qualities of this
odoriferous sort commended the tree to King Solomon, whose
"garden of nuts" was clearly one of Walnuts, according to the
Hebrew word _eghoz_. The longevity of the tree is very great. There is
at Balaclava, in the Crimea, a Walnut tree believed to be a thousand
years old.

[601] The shade of the Walnut tree was held by the Romans to be
baneful, but the nuts were thought propitious, and favourable to
marriage as a symbol of fecundity. The ceremony of throwing nuts,
for which boys scrambled at a wedding, was of Athenian origin:--

"Let the air with Hymen ring
Hymen! Io! Hymen sing!
Soon the nuts will now be flung:
Soon the wanton verses sung."
--_Catullus_.

In Italy this is known as the "Witches tree." It is hostile to the oak.

The leaves of the American Black Walnut tree, which grows
naturally in Virginia, are of the highest curative value for scrofulous
diseases and for strumous eruptions. Chronic, indolent sores have
been healed by these after every other remedy has failed. The parts
should be washed several times a day with a strong decoction of the
leaves, and an infusion of the same should be taken internally; also
of the extract made from the leaves, four grains in a pill each night
and morning. For such purposes the leaves of our English Walnut
are almost equally efficacious. To make an infusion one ounce
should be used to twelve ounces of boiling water. For a syrup mix
eight grains of the extract with an ounce of simple syrup: and give
one teaspoonful of this twice a day with water. Also apply to any
sore som