192 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



cal head, of great beauty. Where it has grown almost by it- 

 self, from an early age, it often becomes a spreading tree, with 

 a fine broad, but somewhat open head. In the forest, its rugged 

 trunk may be seen stretching up, with scarcely perceptible dim- 

 inution, and without a limb, to a height of fifty or sixty feet. 

 It is covered with a bark of remarkable and characteristic ap- 

 pearance. It is of a dark granite or ashen gray, and by a few 

 distant, deep furrows, the external portion is separated into long 

 plates, which cleave nearly off in large loose flakes, attached 

 only by the centre, or one end. This singular exfoliation of the 

 bark does not occur in very young trees, and we sometimes find 

 them bearing fruit with a bark almost as smooth as the mocker- 

 nut or the pignut hickory. 



The branches, if compared with those of most other trees, 

 are small, but are larger than those of the other hickories. The 

 recent shoots are stout, at first grayish or greenish brown, after- 

 wards purple, smooth, and dotted with numerous long, light- 

 brown dots, obliterated in the older shoots, which become 

 of a very dark gray. The leaves are large, and of five leaf- 

 lets, of which the side ones are inequilateral, and nearly sessile, 

 while the terminal leaflet is on a short footstalk. The lower 

 pair are small, narrow, ovate lance-shaped ; the upper pair and 

 the terminal one very large and broad, and inversely egg-shaped. 

 All end in a long point, and are coarsely serrate, smooth and 

 dark green above, of a yellowish green and downy beneath, on 

 a round, yellowish green footstalk. In October, they become of 

 an orange brown or orange russet, and finally a deep russet. 

 The buds are middle sized, ovate, yellowish brown, half cov- 

 ered by the two external scales. Early in the spring, these 

 scales fall off, and the buds enlarge to a very considerable size. 

 In May or June, they open by the folding back of the large, 

 conspicuous scales, which are numerous, from two to five inches 

 long, and often one or two broad, widening towards the end, 

 and of a rich purple color, invested externally with yellowish 

 silken down. They are tough, of a soft leathery texture, and 

 beautifully fringed. 



From the midst of these gorgeous, flower-like scales, appear 

 the leaves, expanding late, but hastening to atone for the delay 



