The trees grow to a very large size, or from sixty to eighty feet high, and two to three feet in diameter, with a thick, deeply furrowed bark, not scaly. The wood is white, heavy, tough, and nearly as valuable as the common shellbark hickory. The terminal buds, and especially those on the young seedlings and suckers springing up in clearings, are very large, round, short, and covered with brownish scales, hence one of the local names of big-bud hickory. A widely distributed species, or from the valley of the St. Lawrence to Florida, and along the great lakes to Nebraska, and thence southward to Texas. Unlike most of the other hickories, this species seems to prefer thin soils, rocky sandstone ridges, and here in New Jersey almost disappearing in the rich bottom lands along our creeks and rivers; at least, this is its habit here in the northern part of the State. Synonyms: Juglans alba (?), Linn., 1754. Juglans tomentosa, Michaux, 1810. Carya tomentosa, Nuttall, 1818. PIGNUT, HOGNUT, BROWN HICKORY, BLACK HICKORY, SWITCH-BUD HICKORY (Hicoria glabra. Miller).-Leaflets five to seven, mostly seven (Fig. 49), ovate-lanceolate, serrate, smooth; fruit pear-shaped or roundish-obovate; husk very thin, splitting about half way down into four sections or valves, these usually remaining attached to the nut for some time after falling, in fact, may often be found within the husk all through the winter; shell of nut moderately thin but tough, with a small, bitterish-sweet kernel. A large, rather slender tree in similar and same localities as the last, with a close bark but not so deeply furrowed as in the mocker nut (H. tomentosa). Of no special value except as a timber tree, and its slow growth makes it less deserving of attention than those species that bear large and edible nuts. Synonyms: Juglans glabra, Miller, 1768. Juglans alba acuminata, Marshall, 1785. Juglans porcina, Michaux. Juglans pyriformis, Muhlenberg. Juglans porcina, var. obcordata, Pursh. Juglans porcina, var. pyriformis, Pursh. Carya porcina, Nuttall. Carya glabra, Torrey. Carya amara, var. porcina, Darby. BITTERNUT, SWAMP HICKORY, PIGNUT (Hicoria minima. Marshall).-Leaflets seven to eleven, oblonglanceolate, serrate, smooth and thin; fruit globular, with distinct ridges at the seams (Fig. 50); the husk very thin, and at maturity splitting about halfway to the base, the four divisions becoming reflexed in maturing, but not separating and falling apart as in the thicker-husk species. Nut broadest at the top, sharp FIG. 51. BITTERNUT. pointed, obcordata (Fig. 51), slightly depressed; shell very thin, smooth, white; kernel intensely bitter when fully ripe, but greedily eaten by squirrels when fresh or in a half milky state. Usually a medium-sized, graceful tree, with smooth bark, slender twigs, and small, oblong buds covered with a dense yellow pubescence in winter. It grows in moist soils, along streams and borders of swamps, and near springs on hillsides, from Maine to Florida, and westward to Minnesota, Nebraska and Kansas. Humphrey Marshall described this species so accurately in his "American Grove," under the name of Juglans minima, p. 68, that there is no good reasor. to doubt its identity, nor question the validity of this name, which should remain as the true and original one, and all others of later date be placed among the synonyms. Synonyms: Juglans (alba) minima, Marshall, 1785. NUTMEG HICKORY (Hicoria myristicaformis. Michaux).-Leaflets five to seven, ovate-lanceolate, pointed, quite smooth on both sides, the terminal leaflet sessile, not stalked; fruit oval; husk wrinkled and rough, thick; nut small, oval, short-pointed; the shell furrowed. and very hard, and of a brownish color marked with white lines. Michaux says: "The shell is so thick that it constitutes two-thirds of the volume of the nut, which, consequently, is extremely hard, and has a minute kernel. It is inferior to the pignut.' A medium-size tree with slender branches, found in a few localities in South Carolina, near swamps and borders of streams, and westward to Arkansas, where it reaches its greatest development. This hickory has been so rarely seen by botanists that Michaux's specific name, given it more than eighty years ago, has fared a better fate than those of our more common and abundant species; consequently, I have only one synonym to record, viz.: Carya amara, var. myristicæformis, Cooper, in Smithsonian Report, 1858. WATER HICKORY, SWAMP HICKORY, BITTER PECAN (Hicoria aquatica. Michaux).-Leaflets nine to thirteen, generally eleven, narrow and obliquely lanceolate-pointed, slightly serrate, thin and smooth; fruit globular or somewhat egg-shaped, four-ribbed; husk |