188 SYLVA AMERICANA. 



in height. In the beginning of May, the buds swell, the external 

 scales fall off, and the inner ones soon after burst and display the 

 young leaf. The leaves are so rapid in their growth that they 

 will often grow twenty inches in eighteen days. They are 

 composed of four pair of sessile leaflets, and terminated by an 

 odd one. The leaflets are large, oval-acuminate, serrate, pretty 

 thick, and hairy beneath, as is also the common petiole to which 

 they are attached. With the first frost, the leaves change to a 

 beautiful yellow, and fall soon after. The barren flowers appear 

 on pendulous, downy, axillary aments, six or eight inches long ; 

 the fertile flowers, which are not very conspicuous, are of a pale 

 rose color, and are situated at the extremity of the young shoots. 

 The fruit is ripe about the middle of November. It is odorous, 

 sessile or rarely pedunculated, and commonly united in pairs. 

 In form and size, it exhibits remarkable varieties : on some trees 

 it is round, with depressed seams, on others oblong, with angular 

 or prominent seams ; it is sometimes two inches long, and twelve 

 or fifteen lines in diameter, and at other times less than half this 

 size. It differs also in weight, as well as in configuration and 

 volume, varying from one dram to four. The largest nuts might 

 be confounded with those of the thick shellbark hickory, and the 

 smallest, with those of the pignut hickory. The shell is very 

 thick, somewhat channelled, and extremely hard. The kernel is 

 sweet but minute, and difficult to extract, on account of the 

 strong partitions which divide i't; hence, probably, is derived 

 the name of Mockernut. 



The wood of this tree is of the same color and texture, with 

 the other hickories, and characterized by the qualities which 

 render this class of trees so remarkable. It is particularly 

 esteemed for fuel, for which use trees of six or eight inches in 

 diameter are preferred. At this stage of its growth, while the 

 heart, the proper color which is reddish, is not yet developed, it 

 frequently goes by the name of White-heart Hickory. In the 

 country a greenish color is sometimes extracted from the bark, 

 but it is not extensively used. 



