DENDROLOGY. 185 



East of the Alleghanies, it grows almost exclusively about swamps 

 and wet grounds, which are exposed to be inundated for several 

 weeks together. 



Of all hickories this species grows to the greatest height with 

 proportionally the smallest diameter, for it is sometimes seen 80 

 or 90 feet in height, and less than two feet thick. The trunk is 

 destitute of branches, regularly shaped, and of an almost uniform 

 size for three-fourths of its length, thus forming a very fine tree. 

 The greatest peculiarity in its appearance, and that by which it 

 is most easily distinguished, is the surface of the trunk. The 

 exterior bark is divided into a great number of long, narrow 

 plates, which bend outwards at the ends, and adhere only in the 

 middle. Bristling in this manner with projecting points, the 

 shellbark hickory attracts the attention of the most careless 

 observer. This remarkable exfoliation of the epidermis takes 

 place, only in trees which exceed ten inches in diameter, though 

 it is much earlier indicated by seams. This characteristic, by 

 which the tree may be recognized in winter when stript of its 

 leaves, does not exist during the first seven or eight years of its 

 growth ; and during this period, it may easily be confounded 

 with the mockernut hickory and pignut hickory, if recourse is 

 not had to the buds. In these two species, the buds are formed 

 of scales closely applied one upon another ; in the species which 

 we are considering, the two external scales adhere for only half 

 the length of the bud, and leave the upper part uncovered. 

 When the sap begins to ascend in the spring, the outer scales 

 fall, and the inner, ones swell and become covered with a yellowish 

 silky down : after a fortnight, the buds, which are already two 

 inches long, open and give birth to the young leaves. The growth 

 of the leaves is so rapid, that in a month they attain their full length, 

 which on young and vigorous trees is sometimes twenty inches. 

 They consist of two pair of leaflets, with a sessile odd one. The 

 leaflets are very large, oval-acuminate, serrate and slightly downy 

 beneath. The barren flowers, which appear in the state of New 

 York about the Middle of May, are disposed on long, glabrous, 

 filiform, pendulous aments, of which three are united on a 

 common petiole, attached at the basis of the young shoots ; the 

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