gray bark to 25 mm. thick and separating into thick plates often 3 dm. or more 

 long and 2 dm. wide that are attached to the trunk by the middle; branches stout 

 and slightly spreading to form a conic round-topped crown; branchlets at first 

 covered with caducous brown scurf and pale glandular pubescence, soon bright- 

 reddish-brown and lustrous, glabrous or pubescent; leaves to 35 cm. long; leaflets 

 5 or rarely 7, slender-stalked, ovate to ovate-lanceolate or obovate, somewhat 

 rounded to acuminate at apex, ciliate on the margins that are finely serrate except 

 toward the usually cuneate base, most of the serrations with a dense tuft of per- 

 sistent hairs on one or both sides near their apex, to 17 cm. long and 75 mm. wide 

 above the middle, dark-yellow-green and glabrous above, paler and shiny-glabrous 

 or puberulous beneath, the terminal leaflet largest; fascicles of staminate aments 

 peduncled, the floral bracts much-elongated; overwintering terminal buds ovoid, 

 to 25 mm. long and 1 cm. thick; fruit solitary or in pairs, subglobose to some- 

 what obovoid, depressed at apex, dark-reddish-brown or nearly black at maturity, 

 glabrous or pilose, to 6 cm. long; husk to 15 mm. thick and splitting freely to the 

 base; nut with a usually thin shell, more or less 4-ridged or -angled, pale or 

 whiiish, the light-brown kernel sweet and aromatic. Hicoria ovata (Mill.) Britt. 



In rich woodlands, bottoms and slopes, commonly near streams and swamps in 

 e. Okla. and e. Tex.; from Fla. to Okla. and Tex., n. to Me., Ont., Wise, Minn, 

 and Neb. 



6. Carya laciniosa (Michx. f.) Loud. Big shellbark hickory, king-nut. 



Tree sometimes more than 30 m. high, with a trunk to 9 dm. in diameter, the 

 light-gray bark to 5 cm. thick and separating into broad thick long-persistent 

 plates to 12 dm. long; branches small and spreading to form a narrow cylindric 

 crown; branchlets orange-brown or tan, at first pilose or covered with a pale or 

 rufous pubescence or tomentum. eventually glabrous or puberulous; leaves to 55 

 cm. long; leaflets 5 to 9, sessile or short-stalked, ovate to oblong-lanceolate or 

 broadly obovate, acute to acuminate at apex, asymmetrically cuneate or rounded 

 at base, to 22 cm. long and 12 cm. wide, the margins finely serrate, dark-green 

 and lustrous above, paie-yellow-green or bronze-brown and covered with soft 

 pubescence beneath; overwintering bud short and blunt; fruit solitary or in pairs, 

 ellipsoid to ovoid or subglobose, depressed at apex, downy or glabrous, light- 

 orange-color or chestnut-brown at maturity, to 63 mm. long and 5 cm. broad; 

 husk pale, hard and woody, about 12 mm. thick; nut with a hard bony shell to 

 7 mm. thick, more or less compressed, prominently 4-ridged or -angled, light 

 yellow or reddish-brown, the light-chestnut-brown kernel very sweet. Hicoria 

 laciniosa (Michx. f.) Sarg. 



In rich bottomlands that are usually periodically inundated, in e. Okla., 

 reported from n.e. Tex.; from N.Y., w. to la. and Neb., s. to Ala., La. and 

 (probably) Tex. 



Fam. 47. Betulaceae S. F. Gray Birch or Hazel-nut Family 



Monoecious trees or shrubs with alternate simple pinnately straight-veined 

 deciduous leaves and deciduous stipules; flowers unisexual; staminate flowers in 

 spreading or drooping catkins, subtended by scaly bracts, with 2- to 4-parted 

 "perianth" (or bracteoles) and 2 to many stamens; pistillate flowers in clusters, 

 spikes or in a scaly catkin, with minute perianth or none; ovary 2-celled, with 

 2 pendulous anatropous ovules in each cell; styles 2; fruit a 1 -celled and 1 -seeded 

 nutlet, with or without a foliaceous involucre. 



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