150 



SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA, juglandace^. 



scarious caducous lateral bracts sometimes nearly an inch long ; the bract of the flower is elongated, 

 obovate, rounded at the apex and coated on the outer surface, like the shorter calyx-lobes, with yellow 

 glandular pubescence; there are six stamens with oblong slightly emarginate light yellow anthers. 

 The female flower is oblong, slightly flattened and four-angled, and covered with glandular pubes- 



cence : the bract is linear-lanceolate, acute and about 



& 



the broad nearly triangular 



acute bractlets and the acute calyx-lobe. The fruit, which is often in three or four-fruited clusters, 

 is much compressed, usuaUy broadest above the middle, rounded at the slightly narrowed base, rounded 

 and abruptly narrowed at the apex into a short thick point, conspicuously four-winged, dark brown or 

 nearly black and covered more or less thickly with bright yeflow pubescence, from an inch to an inch 

 and a half long and from an inch to an inch and a quarter wide, with a very thin and brittle husk 

 which splits tardily and usually only to the middle. The nut is flattened, slightly obovate, from an 

 inch to an inch and a half in length and often as much in breadth, rounded and abruptly sharp-pointed 

 or umbonate at the apex, rounded at the narrow base, four-angled and ridged, the ridges which alternate 

 with the sutures being much broader and more developed than the others, dark reddish brown and 

 longitudinally and very irregularly rugose. The walls and partitions of the cavity are thin, with large 

 and very irregular lacunae fiUed with a dark red bitter powder. The seed is oblong, compressed, two- 

 lobed to above the middle, covered by a dark brown testa and very irregularly and mostly longitudi- 

 naUy furrowed, with cotyledons which are divided from the base for about one third of their length 

 by the thin dorsal partition. 



Hicoria aquatica, the smallest and least valuable of the Hickory-trees, is an inhabitant of low 

 river-swamps often inundated during a considerable part of the year, where it is associated with the 

 Water Ash, the Sweet Gum, the Red Maple, the Cotton Gum, the Bald Cypress, and other water-loving 

 trees. It is distributed from the neighborhood of Mobjack Bay in Virginia * south through the coast 

 region to Cape Malabar and the valley of the Caloosa River in Florida, and through the maritime 

 portions of the Gulf states to the valley of the Brazos River in Texas, ranging north through western 

 Louisiana to northeastern Arkansas, eastern Mississippi, and southern Illinois.^ Comparatively rare in 

 the south Atlantic states, and seldom if ever approaching within fifteen or twenty miles of the coast, 

 the Bitter Pecan is most abundant and grows to its largest size in the swamps of western Mississippi, 

 Arkansas, and Louisiana. 



The wood of Hicoria aquatica is heavy, strong, and close-grained, although soft and rather brittle, 

 and contains numerous thin medullary rays, occasional scattered open ducts and obscure bands of 

 similar ducts marking the layers of annual growth ; it is dark brown, with thick bright-colored or often 

 nearly white sapwood. The specific gravity of the absolutely dry wood is 0.7407, a cubic foot weighing 

 46.16 pounds. It is sometimes used for fencing and fuel, although it is difficult to obtain an account 

 of the inaccessibiHty of the situations inhabited by this tree. 



The Bitter Pecan was first distinguished in Louisiana by the French traveler Robin.^ Introduced 

 into France by the younger Michaux, it is now exceedingly rare in cultivation, or, perhaps, has entirely 

 disappeared from gardens. 



W. H. lege). 



August 



College). 



It is included with Hicoria inyristiciceformis in ■ 

 trees noticed by Maximilian, Prinz von Wied, growing 

 Harmony, Indiana, during his visit there in 1832 (R 



2 Hicoria aquatica was collected in 1883 near Equality, Gallatin Innere von Nord-Amerika, i. 209) 



Mr. W. F. Fortune (teste 



(1807) 



