442 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1917. 



them when once started for Philadelphia. Making these assump- 

 tions, it seems probable that Bartram returned with the nuts some 

 time in October, 1761. 



This chronology implies a different and earlier introduction from 

 that referred to by Brendel, 1 who says that the tree " was unknown 

 to the English colonies until the peace of 1762 (sic) , where by chance 

 some fur traders brought a small number of nuts to New York." If 

 the fur traders here referred to waited until peace was signed, they 

 could hardly have come to New York until the following year, the 

 treaty of Paris being dated February, 1763. The account given by 

 Brendel is followed by Sargent, 2 who in turn is quoted by Heiges. 3 



It will be noted that thus far the nut was known to the Colonies 

 only from the northern portion of its range, along the Ohio River, 

 Illinois Eiver, and in general from what was vaguely known as the 

 Illinois country. 



The southern range seems not to have become known until some 

 years later. The Spanish traveler and writer, Don Antonio de 

 Ulloa, in traversing the region drained by the lower tributaries of 

 the Mississippi, describes the trees of the region and gives a descrip- 

 tion fuller than any earlier one that has come to my attention. Mr. 

 W. E. Safford, of the Department of Agriculture, has kindly trans- 

 lated Ulloa's statement. 4 



Two other kinds of trees are found there which appear to be peculiar to 

 that country. One of these they call Pecanos, which is a kind of walnut of 

 greater body than those (walnuts), but in wood and leaf very similar. The 

 fruit la in taste similar to that of the walnut, more delicate and finer, with less 

 proportion of oil. In form it is different, and resembles dates, being in size 

 almost the same or a little less. The shell is thin and smooth and without the 

 roughness which the walnut has. 



This account not only points out another part of the wide area 

 occupied by this tree but repeats the native name used in 1712 by 

 Marest for the nut found in Illinois, the name that in a modified 

 form has established itself in general usage. 



Perhaps the first actual introduction of the pecan into the East 

 from the South took place late in 1799, when Daniel Clark, jr., of 

 New Orleans, at that time still Spanish territory, sent a box of nuts 

 to Thomas Jefferson, then Vice President of the United States, at 

 Philadelphia. Clark wrote: 



1 Brendel, Frederick, Historical sketch of the science of botany in North America, 

 from 1635 to 1840. American Naturalist, 13 : 757, 1879. 



2 Sargent, Charles Sprague, The "Silva of North America. VII : 140. 



3 Heiges, S. B., Nut culture in the United States, embracing native and introduced 

 species. Division of Pomology, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. 1896 : 50. 



4 Ulloa, Antonio do, Noticias Amoricanas ; Entratenimientos physicos-historicos sobre 

 la America meridional. 7 la Septentrianal oriental, &c. Madrid. 1772 : 116-117. 

 Entretenimiento VI. 



