281 



HicoRiA OR Hickory Trees. 



" Hicoria, Raf., 1808. Carya, Nuttall, 1818, &c. As early 

 as 1804 I proposed to separate the Hickories from the Walnuts, 

 to which Muhlenberg objected. I did so in 1808, in my re- 

 marks on Michaux's Flora, and again in 1817, in my Florula 

 Ludoviciana, giving the almost Grecian name of Hicoria ; yet 

 Nuttall changed it in 1818 (without mentioning my labor) into 

 Carya, which merely means nut, and is as bad a name as that of 

 Nux, given by Adanson to Juglans * * * ; some botanists 

 have, however, adopted this bad name, but it is hoped will have 

 no objection to my previous modification of it when they may 

 know of my previous claim." Then follows a division of the 

 genus into four sub-genera, under which species are mentioned 

 without descriptions or equivalents. He also proposes three new 

 species, all of which were previously known. It will be noticed 

 that Rafinesque here refers to his remarks in 1808, on Michaux's 

 Flora ; these I have have hitherto been unable to find, unless he 

 is alluding to the Medical Repository paper, which makes mention 

 of Michaux's book, but his spelling of //zVc7r/« in 1838, and refer- 

 ence to his former statements, leave no doubt of what he intended 

 for the orthography of what the printer made Scoria. It is very 

 strange that the misprint was never alluded to by the author. 



In 1853 Major John LeConte described what he considered a 

 new species of Pecan Nut, in the Proceedings of the Philadelphia 

 Academy, of that year, p. 402. He remarks: "This species 

 of Hickorea, which I found cultivated in Georgia, is a native of 

 the State of Texas. * * * I have adopted Mr. Rafinesque's 

 name Hickorea for the genus in preference to Mr. Nuttall's Carya 

 on the ground of priority. Whatever may have been the errors 

 or aberrations of Rafinesque, Nuttall was not justified in changing 

 a name proposed by the former years before any publication of 

 his own." He then describes Hickorea Texana, which Prof. Sar- 

 srent has reduced to the com.mon Pecan. I have not seen it. 



In 1862, Casimir DeCandolle published a memoir on the Jug- 

 landeae in Annales des Sciences Naturales, (IV.), xviii., 33, 

 where he described Carya Texana as a new species based on a 

 specimen collected by Charles Wright in Eastern Texas, but in 

 his subsequent monograph of the order for the Prodromus (Vol. 



