JUGLANDACE^. SILVA OF NOETH AMERICA. 



143 



rich bottom-lands of the lower Ohio Basin ; ^ it is rare on the south Atlantic seaboard, and probably 

 does not reach the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, but north of the coast Pine-belt in Alabama and Mis- 

 sissippi it is the most multiplied species on the poor dry gravelly soil of the uplands ; ^ in Iowa and 

 Nebraska it is the commonest species j it is very abundant in Kansas, growing farther west in that 

 state than any other Hickory-tree, but gradually becomes rarer in southern Arkansas and in Texas. 



The wood of JSicorla minima is heavy, very hard, strong, tough, and close-grained, with numerous 

 obscure medullary rays and bands of several rows of large open ducts marking the layers of annual 

 growth. It is dark brown, with thick light brown or often nearly white sapwood. The specific gravity 

 of the absolutely dry wood is 0.7552, a cubic foot weighing 47.06 pounds. It is largely used for 

 hoops and ox-yokes, and for fuel. 



Hicoria minima was not distinguished by the early European travelers and botanists in North 

 America, who usually confounded the different species of Hickory ; and the first mention of it appears 

 in Marshall's Arhustum Americanum, pubhshed in 1785. According to Loudon,^ it was introduced 

 into English gardens in 1800. 



The noble size of the Bitternut, its strong trunk covered with close bright bark, and its handsome 

 head, make it at aU seasons of the year one of the most beautiful trees of the northern forest. In 

 cultivation it grows more rapidly than the other Hickories,"* with the exception of the Pecan, and, still 

 little known or appreciated by planters it might more often be used with advantage for the decoration 

 of parks and pleasure-grounds. 



^ Ridgway, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 1882, 77. Hicoria minima in the Jesup Collection of North American Woods 



2 On this southern upland tree the nut is often unusually thick- in the American Museum of Natural History, New York, from 



shelled, and is covered with a thick husk. Missouri, is fourteen inches in diameter inside the bark, with one 



^ Arh. Brit. iii. 1443, f. 1264. hundred and nine layers of annual growth, twenty-two of which 



* All the species of Hicoria grow slowly. The log specimen of are sapwood. 



