Teachers Leaflet. 759 



particularly on the ribs. Both leaves and outer husk of nut are fragrant when 

 bruised. The nut is large, usually four-angled, very thick-shelled, and enclosed in 

 a thick outer husk which splits freely into sections. Kernel, sweet but 

 disappointingly small. 



Tlie Bitter-nut or Szi'auip Hickory is a smaller tree than its sisters, with a 

 capacious, spreading head usually widest at the top. The bark is brownish gray, 

 with .small, close furrows, on old trees broken into thin, plate-like scales. The 

 leaves are twelve to fifteen inches long with five to nine long and narrow leaflets. 

 The nut is round, smooth, the width usually greater than the length, short-pointed, 

 thin-shelled, and enclosed in a soft, thin, dark green outer husk ; and when ripe 

 splitting only about half-way to the base, each section having a sharp ridge or 

 wing at the edge. Kernel, very bitter. 



The Pig-nut or Broom Hickory is sometimes planted on lawns for its beauty is 

 the deep-piercing roots do not interfere with the growth of grass above them. It 

 is tall and slim, with open, oblong and rounded head, and so smooth and straight 

 grow the tough fibres of its white wood that the early settlers made brooms of 

 the shredded saplings; and in the days when coopers demanded hickory hoop-poles 

 it was the favorite of all the hickories for the purpose, for, in the crowded 

 undergrowth of the forest, inch-thick saplings could be found fifteen feet long, and 

 so straight-grained as to rive smooth!}^ through the middle from end to end. Its 

 bark is ash-gray and smoother than the other hickories, but on old trees breaks 

 into thin plates ; its leaves have long, smooth stems with five to seven leaflets, 

 smaller and more tapering than the other species, and smooth on both sides, except 

 that occasionally a bit of down is found on the under side at the angles of the 

 ribs. The nut is often pear-shaped, enclosed in a thin, greenish-brown outer husk, 

 clinging so closely as usually to fall with the nut to the ground, the sections only 

 separating at the apex; the inner shell is brownish in color, sometimes quite thick, 

 angled but slightly and the point not sharp. The kernel at first tastes sweet but 

 becomes bitter in the mouth. 



Lesson XIV. 



WINTER STUDY OF THE HICKORIES. 



Winter and early spring is the best time for study of the trunk and 

 branches and the general shape of a tree, and it is the only time for 

 observation of the winter buds ; young branches and their leaf-scars, too, 

 are more readily seen and best studied before the leaves appear. In 

 addition to the first three suggestions given for autumn study one should 

 note particularly: 



(i). The size and shape of the buds, whether large and roundish or 

 oblong and pointed or slightly flattened, sometimes a little bent or scythe- 

 shaped. 



(2). The color of the buds, whether greenish-yellow, yellowish-brown, 

 or with a reddish tinge ; the reddish purple, fringed and downy scales of 



