JUGLAKDACE^. 



8ILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



155 



the base nearly to the apex, with a short thin 

 rounded at the base, divided n< 



d flat cotyledons, which 



d 



d 



arly to the middle by the thin ventral partition, rounded and deeply 

 lobed at the apex, irregularly and often prominently ridged on the back, and flat and rugose on the inner 

 face ; it is covered with a thin light brown rather lustrous coat, and is sweet, with an aromatic flavor. 



Hicoria ovata ranges from southern Maine to the valley of the St. Lawrence River, where it finds 

 its most northeasterly home in the neighborhood of Montreal,^ thence southwestward along the northern 

 shores of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, through southern Michigan to central Minnesota ' and south- 



of the elevated regions 



of 



Nebraska,^ southward through the northern states, with the 



New England and northern New York, to Pennsylvania and Delawai 



d along the 



Appalachian Mountains to western Florida, northern Alabama and Mississippi, and westward to central 



Kansas,* the Indian Territory, and eastern Texas.^ It is usually found growing on low hills or in th 



ghborhood of streams and swamps in rich deep and moderately 



Rare 



d comparatively 



local in the Province of Quebec, the Shellbark Hickory is abundant in the forests of southern Ontai 

 where it often grows to a large 



size. 



It abounds in southern New England and the central states ; 



although it does not extend to the south Atlantic and Gulf coasts or ascend to hio-h elevations on th 

 thern mountains ; it is not rare in the country lying at the eastern base o£ the Alleghany Mountains 



but is most common on their western slopes and in the 



Ohio River, where 

 Territory, and east 

 streams. 



B 



largest 



6 



an 



d 



region watered by the tributaries of the lower 

 Missouri and Arkansas ; in Kansas, the Indian 



Texas, it is comparatively rare and confined to the immediate neighborhood of 



The wood of Hicoria ovata is heavy, very hard and 



h, close-irrained, and flexibl 



it 



contains numerous thin medullary rays and bands of from one to three rows of large open ducts clearly 

 marking the layers of annual growth. It is light brown, with thin nearly white sapwood. The specific 

 gravity of the absolutely dry wood is 0.8372, a cubic foot weighing 52.17 pounds. It is largely used 



the manufacture of agricultural implements, in 



carriage and wagon-making, for axe-handles and 



The nuts are the common Hickory nuts of commerce, and are gathered 



the 



baskets, and for fuel, 

 forest in great quantitie 



Hicoria ovata^ according to Loudon,"^ was cultivated in England as early as 1629 ; and what i 

 probably a description of this tree was published by Plukenet in his Almagestiim Botanicimi in 1696 



8 



The stronor vis^orous apDcarance of the Shellbark, the remarkable character of its bark 



hang 



ff 



from the trunk in loose plates, the beauty of its head with its graceful winter outlines, the charm of 

 bursting buds with their bright petal-like scales, and its clean fragrant foliage, make it one of the n 

 interesting and beautiful as well as one of the most valuable trees of the northern forest.^ 



few miles east of Ridgewood, Bergen County, New Jersey ; the nut simili, cortice glahro, summo fastigio veluti in aculeum producto, 264 ; 

 is about an inch and a half in length, and somewhat more in Phyt. 309, f. 2. 



breadth, very wide and full at both ends, obscurely six-angled, and 



Nux Juglans Virginiana albayfructu parvo anguloso^ cortice Icevi, 



full, rounded, and deeply grooved on the back of the valves. The 264; Phyt, 309, f. 2 c. 



walls are not more than u thirty-second of an inch in thickness, and 



These figures are not very good, however, and might almost as 



the partitions are proportionately thin. The flavor of the kernel, well represent some forms of the nuts of Hicoria glabra as those of 

 which keeps sweet for a remarkably long time, is unusually good. this species. 



(See Fuller, Practical Forestry, 120, f . 31, 32. Fig. 6, plate cccxlvii. 

 of this Silva represents this nut.) 



® The demand for Hickory wood in the arts and for fuel is very 

 great, and large individuals of this species, which is usually con- 



1 Brunet, Cat. Veg. Lig. Can, 47. — Bell, Geolog. Rep. Can. sidered the best timber-tree of the genus, are no longer common 



1879-80, SS*', — Macoun, Cat, Can, PL 433. 



2 Macmillan, Metaspermce of the Minnesota Valley, 178. 

 8 Bessey, Rep. Nebraska State Board Agric. 1894, 109. 



in any part of the country. Few trees of the northern forest 

 grow more slowly. The log specimen in the Jesup Collection of 

 North American Woods in the American Museum of Natural 



* Hitchcock, The Woody Plants of Manhattan in Their Winter History, New York, obtained from Missouri, is thirteen inches in 



Conditiony 18. 



(Man. PI. W. 



6 Ridgway, Proc, U, S. Nat. Mus. 1882, 77. 



7 Arb. Brit. iii. 1446, f. 1269, t. 



diameter inside the bark, and shows two hundred and thirty-three 

 layers of annual growth, forty -five of which are sapwood; but it 

 probably indicates an exceptionally slow rate of growth, as the nar- 

 rowness of the rings formed during the first one hundred and nine 



^ Nux Juglans Virginiana alba minor, fructu Nucis moschatce years shows that the tree was overshadowed at first by other trees, 



and its development stunted. 



