Part 11 (1/2)

=Carya tomentosa, Nutt.=

_Hicoria alba, Britton._

MOCKERNUT. WHITE-HEART HICKORY. WALNUT.

Habitat and Range.--In various soils; woods, dry, rocky ridges, mountain slopes.

Niagara peninsula and westward.

Maine and Vermont,--not reported; New Hamps.h.i.+re,--sparingly along the coast; Ma.s.sachusetts,--rather common eastward; Rhode Island and Connecticut,--common.

South to Florida, ascending 3500 feet in Virginia; west to Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Indian territory, and Texas.

=Habit.=--A tall and rather slender tree, 50-70 feet high, with a diameter above the swell of the roots of 2-3 feet; attaining much greater dimensions south and west; trunk erect, not s.h.a.ggy, separating into a few rather large limbs and sending out its upper branches at a sharp angle, forming a handsome, wide-spreading, pyramidal head.

=Bark.=--Bark of trunk dark gray, thick, hard, close, and rough, becoming narrow-rugged-furrowed; crinkly on small trunks and branches; leaf-scars prominent; season's shoots stout, brown, downy or dusty p.u.b.erulent, dotted, resinous-scented.

=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds large, yellowish-brown, ovate, downy.

Leaves pinnately compound, alternate, 15-20 inches long; rachis large, downy, swollen at the base; stipules none; leaflets 7-9, opposite, large, yellowish-green and smooth above, beneath paler and thick-downy, at least when young, turning to a clear yellow or russet brown in autumn, the three upper obovate, the two lower ovate, all the leaflets slightly serrate or entire, pointed, base acute to rounded, nearly sessile except the odd one. Aromatic when bruised.

=Inflorescence.=--May. Sterile and fertile flowers on the same tree, appearing when the leaves are fully grown,--sterile at the base of the season's shoots, in slender, pendulous, downy catkins, 4-8 inches long, usually in threes, branching umbel-like from a common peduncle; scales 3-lobed, hairy; calyx adnate; stamens 4 or 5, anthers red, bearded at the tip: fertile flowers on peduncles at the end of the season's shoots; calyx toothed, hairy, adherent to ovary; corolla none; stigmas 2, hairy.

=Fruit.=--October. Generally sessile on terminal peduncles, single or in pairs, as large or larger than the fruit of the s.h.a.gbark, or as small as that of the pignut, oblong-globose to globose: husk hard and thick, separating in 4 segments nearly to the base, strong-scented: nut globular, 4-ridged near the top, thick-sh.e.l.led: kernel usually small, sweet, edible. The superior size of the fruit and the smallness of the kernel probably give rise to the common name, ”mockernut.”

=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy throughout New England; prefers a rich, well-drained soil, but grows well in rocky, ledgy, exposed situations, and is seldom disfigured by insect enemies. Young trees have large, deep roots, and are difficult to transplant successfully unless they have been frequently transplanted in nurseries, from which, however, they are seldom obtainable. Propagated from seed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE XXV.--Carya tomentosa.]

1. Winter buds.

2. Flowering branch.

3. Sterile flower, front view.

4. Sterile flower, side view.

5. Sterile flower, top view.

6. Fertile flower, side view.

7. Fruiting branch.

=Carya porcina, Nutt.=

_Hicoria glabra, Britton_.

PIGNUT. WHITE HICKORY.

=Habitat and Range.=--Woods, dry hills, and uplands.

Niagara peninsula and along Lake Erie.

Maine,--frequent in the southern corner of York county; New Hamps.h.i.+re,--common toward the coast and along the lower Merrimac valley; abundant on hills near the Connecticut river, but only occasional above Bellows Falls; Vermont,--Marsh Hill, Ferrisburgh (Brainerd); W.