142 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



furnished at the base with a stout long point, lij;lit ycHow to reddish brown, l^'-2^' 

 long and li'-lf wide, with a hard bony shell sometimes ]' thick ; seed light chest- 

 nut-brown, very sweet. 



A tree, occasionally 120 high, \nth a straight slender trunk often free of branches 

 for more than half its height and rarely exceeding 3 in diameter, comparatively 

 small spreading branches forming a narrow oblong head, and stout dark or light 

 orange-colored branchlets at first pilose or covered with pale or rufous pubescence 

 or tomentum, roughened by scattered elevated long pale lenticels. orange-brown and 

 glabrous or puberulous during their first winter and marked with oblong 3-lobed 

 emarginate leaf-scars. "Winter-buds: terminal ovate, rather obtuse, sometimes 1' 

 long and 5' broad, and three or four times as large as the axillary buds, usually 

 covered by 11 or 12 scales, the outer dark brown, puberulous, generally keeled, 

 with a long point at the apex, the inner scales obovate, pointed and rounded at the 

 apex, light green tinged with red, or bright red or yellow, covered with silky pu- 

 bescence on the outer face, slightly resinous, becoming 2'-3' long and 1' broad. Bark 



l'-2' thick, light gray, separating into broad thick plates frequently 3-4 long, 

 sometimes remaining for many years hanging on the trunk. Wood heavy, very 

 hard, strong and tough, close-grained, very flexible, dark brown, with comparatively 

 thin nearly white sapwood. The large nuts are often sold in the markets of western 

 cities and commercially are not often distinguished from those of the Shellbark 

 Hickory. 



Distribution. Rich deep bottom-lands usually inundated during several weeks 

 of every year from Iowa to southeastern Nebraska, through Missouri and Arkansas, 

 eastern Kansas and the eastern portion of the Indian Territory, through southern 

 Illinois and Indiana to East Tennessee, southern Michigan, western and central 

 New York, eastern Pennsylvania and middle North Carolina; rare and local east of 

 the Allegbany Mountains and comparatively rare in Arkansas, Kansas, and the In- 

 dian Territory; one of the commonest trees of the great river swamps of central 

 Missouri and the lower Ohio basin. 



Occasionally cultivated on old estates in Virginia, and rarely in central and west- 

 ern Europe. 



