[Illustration:  THE BUTTERNUT TREE.]

As his scroll-saw was just then the delight of Malcolm’s heart, he felt particularly interested in butternuts, and immediately mapped out in his mind something very beautiful to be wrought with them for his governess.

“The bark and the nutshells have long been used to give a brown color to wool, and the Shakers dye a rich purple with it.  The bark of the trunk will give a black and that of the root a fawn-colored dye, while an inferior sugar has been made from the sap.  The young half-grown nuts are much used for pickles.  Butternut-wood is exceedingly handsome, of a pale, reddish tint, and durable when exposed to heat and moisture.  It makes beautiful fronts for drawers and excellent light, tough and durable wooden bowls.  It is also used for the panels of carriages, as well as for posts and rails.  It is a more common tree than the walnut in our part of the country; there is a large one in front of a house a few miles from here which I will show you on our next drive.”

“I am glad of it,” said Clara, “for I can remember about the trees so much better when I have seen them.  I wish we could see every one of the trees you have told us of, Miss Harson.”

“Perhaps you will some day,” replied her governess, “and you will then find that a little knowledge of them before-hand is a great help.”

“Are there any more of the walnut family?” asked Malcolm.

“Yes, the hickory belongs to it; and this is a tree which is peculiar to America.  The European walnut is more like it than any other.  It is always a stately and elegant tree and very valuable for its timber.  There are several varieties, which are much alike, the principal difference being in the nuts.  You have all seen most of the trees and gathered the nuts.  They are: 

“1.  The shellbark, with five large leaflets, a large nut, of which the husk is deeply grooved at the seams, and a rough, scaly trunk.

“2.  The mocker-nut, with seven or nine leaflets, a hard, thick-shelled nut, and leaflets and twigs very downy when young, and strongly odorous.

“3.  The pignut, with three, five or seven narrow leaflets, small, thin-shelled fruit and a pretty hard nut.

“4.  The bitternut, with seven, nine or eleven small, narrow, serrated leaves, small fruit with long, prominent seams, bitter and thin-shelled nuts and very yellow buds.

“The shellbark is often called ‘shagbark,’ and it is the finest of the hickories and one that is seldom mistaken for any of the others.  It may readily be distinguished by the shaggy bark of its trunk, the excellence of its globular fruit, its leaves, which are large and have five leaflets, and by its ovate, half-covered buds.  It is a tall, slender tree with irregular branches, and the foliage seems to lie in masses of dense, dark green.  But in October, when the nuts ripen, the leaves turn to orange-brown, and finally to the color of a russet apple; so that they do not add greatly to the beauty of the forest.”