200 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



They are of a lively green, and, in autumn, assume often a rich 

 orange color, a faint tinge of which they retain when the other 

 species have grown russet and brown. Such is the prevailing 

 character of the leaves in this vicinity. Elsewhere they are 

 sometimes very large. 



The male flowers are in ternate, pendulous catkins, from 

 three to six inches in length, very slender, and somewhat 

 downy, and bristling less with the prolonged points of the scales 

 than in the other hickories. The inconspicuous fertile flowers 

 are on the ends of the branchlets, single, or two or more togeth- 

 er, remarkable, when closely examined, for the very broad stig- 

 mas which overlie the segments of the scaly and resinous calyx, 

 the future envelope of the fruit. 



The fruit of the bitternut hickory is nearly round, or slightly 

 compressed on one side, and is distinguished by the prominent 

 winged edges of the seams, only two of which extend more than 

 half way down. The husk is smoothish, or slightly granulated, 

 thin and fleshy, and never becomes very hard. The nut is 

 white and smooth, broader than it is long, and somewhat heart- 

 shaped at the top. The shell is so thin, that it may be broken 

 by the fingers, and contains a kernel remarkably corrugated, 

 and so bitter, that squirrels refuse to feed on it while any other 

 nut can be found, and even boys will not eat it. From the bark 

 or husks of some one of the hickories, probably this, the Indians 

 are said to have procured materials for coloring a permanent 

 yellow. 



These are all the hickories of whose occurrence in Massachu- 

 setts I am confident. The varieties of the pignut may here- 

 after be elevated into species; and the species called by Mi- 

 chaux the nutmeg hickory, will probably be found here. I 

 have seen nuts and leaves, which reminded me of the descrip- 

 tion and figure of this species, but, forgetting their locality, I 

 have been unable to verify my conjectures by observation. 



