452 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



From Pennsylvania Trees 



MOCKERNUT HICKORY 



yellowish green like the young leaves surrounding them. 

 Each flower consists of several tiny scales tightly enclosing 

 a small globular body from the centre of which two small 

 plumes protrude to collect the pollen as it floats through 

 the air. The central part of the flower consists of four 

 communicating chambers in which there is a single rudi- 

 mentary plant. 

 During the sum- 

 in e r starches 

 and oils are 

 packed into the 

 seed leaves of 

 this little plant 

 until they fill the 

 four compart- 

 ments and are 

 known as the 

 kernels of the 

 nuts. With the 

 frost of autumn, 

 the husk splits 

 into four parts, 

 freeing the hard- 

 shelled nut. 



The S h a g - 

 bark (Hicoria 

 oi'ata ) , s o m e - 

 times called the 

 shellbark, is 

 important not only because it produces nuts with large, 

 finely flavored kernels, but also because of the high 

 quality of its wood. Its leaves vary from 8 to 14 

 inches in length and commonly have five leaflets, but 

 occasionally seven. The leaflets vary in size, the lower 

 pair being small, the succeeding pair or pairs growing 

 larger and broadening out at their tips, the single leaflet 

 at the end of the stem being largest of all. The nuts are 

 white, half an inch to an inch in length, and of about the 

 same width, and are enclosed in a husk half an inch thick. 

 They are considerably flattened with four sharp ridges 

 on the sides, so that the nut is more or less four-edged. 

 The Shagbark is one of the tallest hickories, sometimes 

 attaining a height of 120 feet and a diameter of 3 or 4 feet 

 but more often only about half this size. In dense forests 

 the trunk is straight, tapering slightly and free from 

 branches for the greater part of its length. In the open the 

 trunk branches are low to form the narrow, open, cylinder- 

 shaped top that is quite generally characteristic of the 

 hickories. The long, ragged strips of dark-gray bark that 

 clothe the trunk make this tree conspicuous and prove that 

 " shagbark " is a well-chosen title. These strips may be 

 3 to 8 inches wide and 3 feet or more in length, and are 

 frequently attached to the tree at the middle, leaving the 

 ends of the strips swinging free. Young trees have 

 smooth, greenish or grayish bark. 



The Shagbark grows in rich, deep, rather moist soils, 

 in valleys and on hillsides from southern Maine and 

 Quebec west to Minnesota and south through the Appa- 

 lachian Mountains to Florida and eastern Texas. The 



Big Shellbark (Hicoria laciiiosa) has a more restricted 

 range, being found from central New York and eastern 

 Pennsylvania to Tennessee and Arkansas. This tree 

 selects rich bottom lands, preferably sites that are flooded 

 for short periods of time. It is closely allied to the 

 Shagbark, growing equally tall, but seldom over 3 feet 

 in diameter. Its bark is less ragged than that of the 

 Shagbark and its leaves are longer (10 to 22 inches), 

 consisting of 7 to 9 leaflets. The nut is longer and 

 much broader than that of its nearest relative, dull 

 white or yellowish in color, with 4 or 6 heavy ribs on 

 its sides. The ends of the nut are usually strongly 

 pointed, unlike the nut of the Shagbark, which is 

 rounded or notched at the end, and the husk and the 

 shell of the nut nf the Rig Shellbark are much thicker. 



The North 

 Carolina Shag- 

 b a r k ( Hicoria 

 Caroliiur-septen- 

 trioualis ) has 

 shaggy bark but 

 it has smaller 

 leaves, buds and 

 fruit than the 

 other shagbarks, 

 and is a much 

 smaller tree. It 

 is distributed 

 through the up- 

 lands of western 

 North Carolina, 

 eastern Tennes- 

 see and northern 

 portions of 

 Alabama a n 1 1 

 Georgia. 



The Pignut 

 ( Hicoria glabra), 

 the Small Pignut {Hicoria odorata), and the Alockernut 

 {Hicoria alba), by soine are called " Black Hickory." This 

 term refers to the darker color of the bark. Because they 

 have a high proportion of white sapwood, they are also 

 called " White Hickory." The Pignut grows practically 

 throughout the same territory as the Shagbark, except that 

 it follows the Atlantic Coast to Florida, and is also found 

 along a portion of the Gulf Coast. As a rule it chooses to 

 grow in the dry soils of ridges and hillsides. Although it 

 may grow 90 feet high and 3 or 4 feet in diameter, it is un- 

 common to find trees exceeding 2 feet in diameter and 60 

 or 70 feet in height. The trunk, straight and free from 

 branches when growing in the woods, is apt to fork and 

 form a double top when growing in the open. The dark- 

 gray bark, which is tight and close, is separated by narrow, 

 flattened ridges into small, diamond-shaped areas, on the 

 order of the fissures in the bark of white ash, but less regu- 

 lar. The leaves are 8 to 12 inches long, with 5 to 9 leaflets 

 (7 commonly, 9 rarelv) : unlike the Shagbark, the individ- 

 ual leaflets varv comparatively little in size or shape. The 

 nuts are small (less than an inch in length), rounded or 



Fro} 



[ Pennsylvania Trees 



PIGNUT HICKORY 



