188 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



With such claims, it has a right to demand more attention than 

 it has yet received. 



From the great resemblance which several of the species have 

 to each other, in shape, and in the size, form, and number 

 of the leaflets, they are liable to be confounded, and distinct 

 species are confounded almost universally. Except when in 

 fruit, it is very difficult to distinguish them, and even then it is 

 necessary for the inexperienced observer to have recourse to the 

 taste, so great and numerous are the diversities in their size, 

 shape, and external appearance. The hickories are stately trees. 

 All of them have, more than any other native deciduous tree, a 

 tendency, even when growing by themselves, on the open plain, 

 to rise to a great height, and form a tall cylindrical head, not 

 wide, but holding a breadth of twenty or thirty feet, with only 

 such breaks and irregularities as preserve it from sameness, to 

 the very top. This is a great beauty, and serves to give a 

 marked character to the tree when seen at a distance, left, as it 

 often is by our farmers, an ornament and shade to the pas- 

 ture, or standing by itself on the edge of a wood, or along en- 

 closures. This great beauty of the tree would recommend it 

 for transplantation to the sides of commons and public roads, if 

 it were not for the great difficulty with which it is removed, 

 after it has attained any considerable height. The principal 

 root, except, perhaps, in the case of the bitternut hickory, is a 

 very long and perpendicular taproot, with few fibres or side roots. 

 It is therefore liable to be so much injured in transplanting, from 

 the loss of the extremity, that few trees survive the operation. 

 To be successfully propagated, it must therefore be raised from 

 the seed, sown where the tree is finally to remain. In our bleak 

 and windy climate, few trees will grow without shelter in their 

 earlier years. The hickories should be raised in large masses, 

 of several acres at least. And the nuts, previously made to 

 germinate in boxes, filled with earth, and kept moist in the cel- 

 lar,* should be sown so plentifully, as to allow for casualties, 

 such as the depredations of squirrels and other small animals, 



* Michaux, N. A. Sylva, I, p. 205. He adds, "The success of this simple 

 method is certain." 



