176 THE KTT CULTUBIST. 



had ever been found, and this was of large size, six and 

 a half feet in circumference, and about fifty feet high, 

 the bark somewhat like that of the hickory but nearer 

 the pecan. Mr. Nussbaurner sent me specimens of the 

 green nuts with leaves and twigs, from the original tree. 

 The nuts, however, of that season (1884), were badly 

 infested with the "hickory-shuck worm 13 (Grapholitha 

 caryana, Fitch), and these had so ruined the shucks, 

 and even eaten into the shells of the nuts, that few of 

 the specimens received were fully developed. But from 

 two nuts I had a sketch made while they were fresh and 

 of natural size, as shown in Fig. 



66, the dark, irregular marks on 

 the husks showing where the 

 shuck worm had attacked them. 

 One of these nuts is shown in Fig. 



67, also natural size. I planted 

 one of the nuts, from which I now 

 have a tree about ten feet high, 

 but although ten years old it has 

 not fruited, and, so far as I can 

 judge from its appearance, is a 

 pure Western shellbark, with no 

 indication of hybridity; but of 

 course this does not prove that 



FIG. 67. . . . 



NUSSBAUMER'S HYBRID, the original or parent tree is not 

 a hybrid, as claimed by Mr. Nussbaumer, Judge Miller, 

 and, if I am rightly informed, Prof. T. J. Burrill, of 

 the University of Illinois. 



However widely opinions may differ in regard to 

 the origin of this variety, it is certainly a most remark- 

 able nut, and I regret that the exact location of the 

 original tree has entirely escaped my most careful seek- 

 ing ; and of late years I have been unable to learn any- 

 thing of Mr. Nussbaumer, further than that he had 

 moved from Mascoutah to Okawville, 111., the last letter 



