196 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



pointed scales, imbricately arranged, and differ from those of 

 the other species in being somewhat more hairy. The fertile 

 flowers are very small, and consist of a calyx with four seg- 

 ments, from which issue two hairy, irregular, ragged stigmas. 



The fruit of the rnockernut varies remarkably in size, shape 

 and appearance, but is commonly from four to six inches in cir- 

 cumference. It is sometimes nearly orbicular and smooth, with 

 slightly depressed furrows, but more frequently pear-shaped, 

 with prominent seams and a granulated surface. The husk 

 separates nearly to the base into four unequal lobes, sometimes 

 as thick as those of the shellbark, and sometimes quite thin? 

 but always becoming very hard. It has, in a remarkable de- 

 gree, the strong resinous scent characteristic of the species. 

 The nuts are whitish, commonly somewhat pear-shaped, and 

 less compressed and with less prominent angles than those of 

 the shellbark. Rut a variety is found with prominent angles, 

 and is distinguished by the name of the square nut. The shell 

 is very thick and hard, and difficult to crack. The kernel is 

 sweet, and, in some varieties, as large as in the shellbark, but 

 the difficulty of extracting it, makes it far less valuable. The 

 fruit ripens in October. 



The wood is characterized by the hardness, tenacity and 

 weight which belong to all the trees of this genus. It is less 

 easily cleft than that of the shellbark, but next to it in value as 

 fuel, and less tenacious than that of the pignut, and therefore 

 less valued for its uses in the arts. But the differences in these 

 respects are so slight, that only the most careful observers have 

 noticed them. When young, it is supposed to be whiter than 

 that of the other hickories, and thence the tree receives the 

 common name of white heart hickory. The Indians made of 

 the bark of one of the hickories, probably this, with the assist- 

 ance of a vegetable acid, the only kind of acid they had, a 

 black dye, said to have been deep and permanent. 



Michaux, who had made experiments upon the several spe- 

 cies, pronounces the rnockernut to be the slowest in its growth 

 of all; and he thinks it is the most liable to the attacks of 

 worms, and therefore one of the least valuable for cultivation. 

 He says it grows on poorer soils than the other species, but 



