JUGLANDACEJE 139 



nois; most abundant and of its largest size in western Mississippi, Arkansas, and 

 Louisiana. 



2. Bud-scales numerous, imbricated. 



6. Hicoria ovata, Britt. Shellbark Hickory. Shagbark Hickory. 



Leaves 8'-14' long, with stout glabrous or pubescent petioles, and 5 or rarely 7 

 ovate to ovate-lanceolate or obovate leaflets, acuminate or rarely rounded at the apex, 

 sessile or short-stalked, more or less thickly ciliate on the margins, finely serrate ex- 

 cept toward the usually cuneate base, thick and firm, dark yellow-green and glabrous 



above, paler, glabrous and lustrous or puberulous below, the terminal leaflet decur- 

 rent on a slender stalk, 5'-T long, 2'-3' broad, rather larger than the upper leaflets, 

 and two or three times as large as those of the lowest pair. Flo'wers: staminate 

 opening after the leaves have grown nearly to their full size, in slender light green 

 glandular-hirsute aments 4'-5' long, short-stalked, glandular-hirsute, their elon- 

 gated ovate acute lanceolate bract two or three times as long as the ovate concave 

 rounded or acute calyx-lobes; stamens 4, with nearly sessile yellow anthers tinged with 

 red; pistillate in 2-5-flowered spikes, ^' long, clothed with rusty tomentum. Fruit 

 solitary or in pairs, subglobose, rather longer than broad or slightly obovate, de- 

 pressed at the apex, dark reddish brown or nearly black at maturity, roughened by 

 small pale lenticels, glabrous or pilose, l'-2^' long, the husk ^-1' thick and splitting 

 freely to the base ; nut oblong, nearly twice as long as broad, or obovate and broader 

 than long, compressed, prominently or obscurely 4-ridged and angled, acute and 

 gradually or abruptly narrowed or rounded and nearly truncate at the apex, gradu- 

 ally narrowed and rounded at the base, pale or nearly white, thick or rarely thin- 

 walled, ^'-V long, I'-l' wide; seed light brown, lustrous, sweet, with an aromatic 

 flavor. 



A tree, 70-90 and occasionally 120 high, with a tall straight trunk 3-4 in 

 diameter, in the forest often free of branches for 50-60 above the ground and 

 then divided into a few small limbs forming a narrow head, or with more space some- 

 times dividing near the ground or at half the height of the tree into stout slightly 

 spreading limbs, forming a narrow inversely conical round-topped head of more or 



