354 DECIDUOUS TREES. 



The different species of the hickory vary from one another less 

 in their appearance, as they grow old, than most other trees. 

 While young the differences are more marked, but when the trees 

 are from thirty to fifty years old, all have the same general charac- 

 teristics of forms and shadows when seen from a distance the 

 variations in their bark being the most marked difference between 

 them. 



The following are the principal varieties all natives of our 

 country : 



THE SHELL-BARK HICKORY. Carya alba, This species is not 

 excelled in beauty of leaf or form by any of 

 the others, and excels them all in the quality of 

 its nut, the toughness and value of its wood in 

 the arts, and its superiority over all other woods 

 for fuel. But though hard and heavy, and 

 strong beyond other timber, no wood rots 

 quicker when exposed to moisture. When 

 young the bark is smooth ; but after the wood is 

 from twelve to fifteen years old it is generally 

 distinguished from the other hickories by its sin- 

 gularly scaly, or laminate outer bark, which, on old trees, fre- 

 quently drops off in broad pieces from two to four feet in length, 

 and from one-eighth to a quarter of an inch in thickness, or may be 

 pulled off readily without injury to the tree. This bark is of a cin- 

 namon-brown color on the inside, is full of oil, and valued above 

 all other kindlings for the quick, bright, hot fire it makes. 



The tree grows rapidly, and when young the leaves are very 

 large ; each leaf being composed of five leaflets (rarely seven), those 

 of the terminal triplet being usually from five to seven inches 

 long, but much larger in thrifty young trees, and smaller in old 

 trees. Their color is a deep glossy green darker than most trees. 

 The nuts are whiter and thinner shelled than those of other species, 

 and about an inch in longest diameter ; but there is much differ- 

 ence, as in fruit trees, between different trees of the same species, in 

 the size and quality of the nut. All things considered this is de- 

 cidedly the most valuable of the hickories. On page 352 we give a 



