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Home Nature-Study CouRsfi. 



(6). Is the nut angled or pointed or roundish and without angles? 

 Is the shell thick or thin? Is its kernel sweet or bitter? 



Facts for the Teacher. — All the hickories are tall growers and when in a wood 

 reaching upward for light, their slenderness is extreme. A shag-bark with a trunk 

 six inches thick when closely crowded will show eight or ten feet of height to each 

 inch of the trunk's diameter. Even when growing alone in a field the shag-bark 



is the tallest and most 

 stately of its family; its 

 head is unsymmetrical, ob- 

 long in shape, the lower 

 branches usually small and 

 unequal in length, the 

 upper ones irregularly dis- 

 posed, causing gaps in the 

 foliage. But the bark is 

 the distinguishing mark 

 of this tree; scaling away 

 from its trunk in long thin 

 plates that curve outward 

 at top and bottom and are 

 so slightly, held in the 

 middle that they are easily 

 pulled off with the fingers, 

 it is unmistakable. Leaf 

 and fruit too are distinc- 

 tive ; the former has gen- 

 erally five leaflets, some- 

 times three and very rarely 

 seven ; the nut is large 

 with a thick, smooth outer 

 husk, channeled at the 

 seams and separating 

 readily into sections ; the 

 inner shell is sharply 

 angled and pointed and 

 slightly flattened at the 

 sides. Kernel, sweet. 



The Big Shag-bark or 

 King-nut is similar to the 

 shag-bark in habit of growth, height and bark ; but its leaflets are seven to nine, more 

 oblong and wedge-like and are downy when young, the mature leaves remaining 

 slightly downy beneath. The nut is very large, thick-shelled, oblong, angled, and 

 pointed at both ends. The kernel is large and sweet but inferior in flavor to the 

 smaller Shag-bark. 



The Mocker-nut or White-heart Hickory is more graceful than the Shag-bark, 

 with a more symmetrical, oblong and rounded head. The bark on the trunk is 

 dark gray, very close but rough, with small, rugged furrows. The leaves are large, 

 from twelve to eighteen inches long, with seven to nine leaflets, smooth above but 

 very downy underneath when young and somewhat so even when mature. 



Photo by Verne Morton. 



The Bitter Nut. 



