Tiir. r)ri,r-KTiN. 



33 



explained by the fact that the pecan (Tlicoria jyecan) crosses very 

 readily with the bitter nnt {Hicona aquallca). Half of the blood 

 of such a cross would be from stock that has produced bitter nuts 

 for centuries, and never anythin«2j but bitter nuts. Such a seedling 



nut is shown in Fig. 



15. On the right is the bitter-nut father and 



"V 



Fig. 16. Pecan and hickory nut, with resulting hican between. 



on the left the mother pecan. As the native range of the bitter-nut 

 tree covers a good deal of the country where pecans are grown, it is 

 very easy to account for the numerous bitter seedling pecans. The 

 thinness of shell in so many of the bitter seedling pecans is readily 

 explained by the fact that the bitter nut is uniformly thin-shelled. 

 In the pecan-bitter-nut crosses are found all kinds of intermediate 



Fig. 17. Nuts from seedling trees all produced by planting nuts from the same tree. 

 Nuts obtained from Mr. T. P. Littlepage, Washington, D. C. 



blendings and combinations of the characteristics of both nuts. The 

 pecan also crosses with several species of hickories, giving a race of 

 variously blended intermediate hybrids known as hicans. c?-- t^— ""^ 



See Fig. 



16. 



