The Pecan Tree. 237 



THE PECAN TREE. 



BY DR. CHARLES MOHR, OF ALABAMA. 



Among the trees of the forest region of Eastern North America the pecan 

 tree recommends itself above all others to the attention of the fruit-grower, 

 and particularly to the horticulturist of the Mississippi Valley, its range be- 

 ing largely determined by the course of the Mississippi river and its larger 

 tributaries east and west. With every year its cultivation is attracting more 

 attention in the Southern States, by the constantly increasing demand for 

 its. nuts, not only to supply home markets, but as an article of export. 

 Wherever the thin-shelled varieties, with their plump-sweet kernel of unsur- 

 passed richness, find their way, they take the first rank among all others of 

 similar kind. The high prices obtained of late years offer better induce- 

 ments for the propagation of these better varieties, and tend generally to the 

 future preservation of the natural groves 



It is needless to dwell on the botanical character of the Carya divlaformis, 

 as it is called by the botanists. It is found described in almost every de- 

 scriptive botany of the country. It shall only be mentioned that among its 

 congeners, the hickories, it is distinguished by its elongated fruit, tapering 

 at both ends, with a cylindrical, smooth nut with a thin shell, separating easily 

 from the deeply-lobed seed. 



The pecan tree prefers, naturally, the cool, damp bottom lands of a deep, 

 rich soil, not subject to long-continued overflows, or constantly wet. The 

 area of its distribution follows, in the mean, the course of the Mississippi 

 river, with an extent largely prevailing in a southwestern direction. Its 

 boundaries, within the United States, have been accurately ascertained, in 

 the course of the investigations of the forest growth of our country, in con- 

 nection with the tenth census. 



Starting from its southern extremity in the United States, on the Rio 

 Grande near Loredo, under the 28° of latitude, its western boundary follows, 

 in Texas, nearly the 100 meridian; with an eastern trend it traverses the 

 center of the Indian Territory, follows the eastern border of Kansas, and 

 reaches, with a strong deflection at the 97° of longitude, its most northern 

 limit on the Mississippi river, near the 42° of latitude, embracing Southern 

 Iowa, Southeastern Kansas, almost the whole of Missouri, all of Arkansas, 

 the eastern half of Indian Territory, the larger part of Texas, and of Louisi- 

 ana, above the low alluvial plain in the eastern, in the low-grass savannas 

 and drift hills in the western, part of that State. East of the Mississippi its 

 area is confined to the bottom of that river inthe northern part of Illinois, 

 and, stretching through the lower portion as far east as the meridian of 

 Louisville, Kentucky, it embraces the lower basin of the Wabash river, of the 

 White river, and the bottom of the Ohio river. Scarce in the northern part 

 of Kentucky, it is abundant in the lower Green River Valley, and that of the 

 Cumberland, to the lower basin of the Tennessee river. 



