CARUNCULA. 



CARYOCATACTES. 



790 



and Moench. Babington, in his ' Manual,' has restored the Linuseau 

 species. (Babington, Manual of British Botany.) 



CARU'NCULA, a name applied by botanists to protuberances 

 found occasionally surrounding the hilum of a seed. It is sometimes 

 also called a Strophiloa. Parts of this kind occur on the seeds of 

 Euphorbia Lathyrii. 



CA'RYA, a genus of plants belonging to the natural order Juglan- 

 dacece. The species are North American trees, comprehending the 

 various kinds of Hickory. This genus was formerly combined with 

 Juglan*, or the true Walnut ; but it is distinguished by the shell of its 

 nuts not being deeply furrowed, and by the catkins of the male flowers 

 growing in threes. This must not be confounded with Careya, a genus 

 of Indian Myrtacece. 



Several species of Hickory are recognised by botanists ; but, accord- 

 ing to Michaux, the timber of all of them is so similar in quality that 

 it is impossible to distinguish it. The bark of the Hickory is in all cases 

 remarkable for the lozenge-shaped arrangement of its woody tissue. 

 The wood is coarse-grained, very heavy, exceedingly tough and strong, 

 and red at the heart ; but on the other hand it decays quickly when 

 exposed to the weather, and it is subject to be attacked by worms. 

 It is on these accounts chiefly employed for the shafts and springs of 

 carriages, for large screws, such as those of bookbinders' presses, for 

 bows, chair-backs, whip-handles, wooden-cogged wheels, hoops for 

 casks, and a variety of similar purposes. When burnt, hickory-wood 

 consumes slowly, gives out a great heat, and forms a heavy coal, which 

 remains glowing for a long while. It is considered to be upon the 

 whole the best of all woods for fuel : it has however the fault of 

 crackling and scattering about its sparks. . 



C. Mixefornu*, the Pecan or Pecana Nut (Juglara angiwtifolia, 

 'Hortus Kewensis'). This is a swamp species, with a slender stem, 

 sometimes as much as 70 feet high. Its leaves are a foot to 18 inches 

 long ; their stalks are downy ; the leaflets, which are 2 or 3 inches 

 long, or as much as 5 inches on very strong shoots, are taper-pointed 

 and firmly serrated. Their nuts are oblong, very smooth, angular in 

 only a slight degree, about 1 4 inch long, and thinner shelled than the 

 other sorts. The kernel is good to eat, and by far the best of the 

 hickories; on this account the nuts are a small article of North 

 American trade. The Pecan Nut in found in Upper Louisiana and 

 New Orleans. It is common on the banks of rivers in Missouri, 

 Illinois, and Arkansas, It does not occur, except in straggling speci- 

 mens, more than 200 miles above the mouth of the Ohio. 



C. rulcata (Juglant lacinioia, Michaux), Thick-Shell-Bark Hickory, 

 Springfield or Gloucester Nut, is very common in all the low grounds, 

 adjoining the Ohio and its tributaries, where, along with three-thorned 

 gleditachias, black walnuts, Virginian bird-cherries, American elms, 

 planes, and different species of Acer, it forms dense forests; it is 

 seldom found west of the Alleghanies. Its trunk is as much as 80 

 feet high, on which it has a noble spreading head. Its bark, like that 

 of some of the other hickories, strips off in ribands from 1 to 3 feet 

 long, which separate at their extremities and curl backwards, finally 

 adhering to the trunk only by their middle. The leaves vary in 

 length from 8 to 20*inches ; in form they are very like those of C. alba, 

 but they usually have six or eight leaflets instead of four, which is 

 the invariable number in that species. The nuts are oblong, sharp- 

 pointed at each end, with four elevated angles, and a thick shell of 

 a yellowish-brown colour, not white as in C. alba. They are brought 

 to market in North America under some of the names mentioned 

 above. 



C. alba (Juglant iquamota, Michaux), White-Shell-Bark, Shag-Bark, 

 Scaly-Bark Hickory. The shaggy appearance of the bark adverted 

 to in speaking of the last species has caused the above names to be 

 applied to this common species. It extends from South Carolina to 

 the neighbourhood of Portland in the state of New Hampshire, where 

 it is said to disappear. It is the most slender-stemmed of all the 

 hickories, its trunk being sometimes 80 or 90 feet high and not more 

 than 2 feet in diameter, and is described as a magnificent tree in its 

 native forests. The young buds are woody, and slightly orange- 

 coloured. The leaves are often 20 inches long ; they have only four 

 leaflets and an odd one, which are smooth and bright green above, 

 finely downy on the under side, and serrated at the edge. The nuts 

 are whitish, nearly round, hardly pointed at each end, angular, com- 

 pressed, thick-shelled, remarkably small in proportion to the size of 

 the fruit with its fleshy rind upon it. The kernel is next in quality 

 to that of the Pecan Nut. They form a common article of market 

 commerce. 



C. tomenloia, Mocker-Nut Hickory, so called in consequence of the 

 smallness of the kernel compared with the size of the nut. Its leaflets 

 are from 7 to 9 in number, slightly round, very downy on the under 

 side ; they become bright-yellow in the autumn. The leaf-buds are 

 thick, short, whitish-gray, and very hard in the winter season. The 

 nuta are sessile, roundish, and inclosed in a rind which only opens 

 half-way to let them drop out ; they are light-brown, angular, and 

 very little pointed. The bark of this species does not scale off, but 

 rends into deep fissures. It grows the slowest of all the hickories, 

 and is found chiefly in forests from New England to Virginia and in 

 the Alleghanies ; 1'ursh says in fertile soils, but Michaux adds that 

 it nevertheless is the only hickory which makes its appearance in 

 those sterile tracts called pine-barrens, where however it is only a 



scrubby bush. In the most favourable situations it rarely grows 

 more than 60 feet high, and is usually a gnarled inelegant tree. 

 Nuttall mentions a variety of this species as occurring a few miles 

 from Philadelphia, with " fruit nearly twice the ordinary size, as large 

 as an apple." 



C. microcarpa. Leaflets about five, oblong-lanceolate, sharply 

 serrate, and obviously tapered to the point ; smooth on each side, 

 glandular beneath. Fruit roundish, with a small thin-shelled nut, 

 which is somewhat quadrangular and abruptly rounded at the end, 

 with a very small point. According to Nuttall this is found wild 

 on the banks of the Schuylkill, in the vicinity of Philadelphia, where 

 it forms a large tree with an even bark. The fruit is much like that 

 of C. tomentosa, and eatable, but very small, not exceeding the size of 

 a nutmeg. 



C. amara, Bitter Nut, or Swamp Hickory ; found from the state of 

 Vermont in the north, as far as the most southern parts of the Ame- 

 rican Union. In woods near New York, Michaux measured several 

 individuals which were 10 or 12 feet in circumference, and from 70 

 to 80 feet high ; but in general it is smaller. It is the latest in leafing 

 of all the hickories. The leaflets are from 7 to 9 in number, smooth, 

 coarsely and irregularly serrated, long, lanceolate, and more wrinkled 

 than in other species. The fruit is small, roundish, with a thin rind ; 

 the nuts are obovate, depressed at the end, with a central projecting 

 point ; they have no angles, and are broader than they are long ; the 

 shell is thin and brittle, and the kernel so bitter and austere that even 

 I squirrels refuse to eat it. This species is easily known in winter by 

 its yellow buds. 



C. aquatica, found only in the lower parts of the southern states of 

 the American Union, in swamps, and by the side of ditches surround- 

 ing rice-fields, along with red maples, deciduous cypresses, and Carolina 

 poplars. It is readily known by its very narrow taper-pointed leaflets, 

 which vary in number from 9 to 11. Its fruit is small, ovate, tuber- 

 culated, angular, and placed upon stalks in little clusters. The nuts 

 are bright brown, ovate, angular, but little pointed at either, end ; 

 they are very thin-shelled, and contain an extremely little kernel 

 The tree grows from 40 to 50 feet high, and is of much less value 

 than the other species. 



C. porcina, the Pig-Nut Hickory, or Hog-Nut. This is most com- 

 mon in the middle states, beginning with Lancaster County, Penn- 

 sylvania, in the north. It is one of the largest trees in the United 

 States, growing to the height of 70 or 80 feet, with a diameter of 3 

 or 4 feet. Its brown shoots and oval very small buds distinguish it 

 in winter. The leaflets are lanceolate, very taper-pointed, regularly 

 serrated, and from 3 to 7 in number ; they are quite smooth on each 

 side, and on vigorous shoots in shady places their stalks are violet. 

 The fruit is sessile, and varies in form from pyriform to spherical : 

 its little nuts correspond in this respect with their rind ; they are 

 scarcely at all angular, and always rounded at the apex, with a sharp 

 point ; the shell is very thick and hard ; the kernel sweet but small, 

 and difficult to extract. 



C. myriiticitformis, Nutmeg Hickory. This is a little brown species, 

 of which Michaux obtained a single branch with about 30 nuts at 

 Charlestown from a negro gardener, who procured them in the neigh- 

 bourhood of that city. Its leaves are like those of C. aquatica, but 

 not quite so long and narrow. The fruit is sessile, oval, tuberculated, 

 and contains a small smooth brown striated nut, with an exceed- 

 ingly thick shell, and a very small kernel. Elliott, who resided near 

 Charlestown, and wrote on the plants of Carolina, could never gain 

 any further intelligence of this plant. 



(Michaux, Arbrei Foratiers de lAmfrique Septmtrionale.) 



CARYO'CAR, the only genus of the natural order Rhizobolacea, 

 one of whose species yields the Butter-Nuts of the London fruiterers' 

 shops. One species is described by Aublet, under the name of Pekea 

 butyroea, as a large tree with a trunk 80 feet high, and 3 feet in dia- 

 meter. The berries are covered by a rind two or three lines thick, 

 and consisting internally of a buttery yellowish substance, which 

 melts between the fingers, and which is sometimes used in cooking 

 instead of animal butter. Under the rind lies a stone covered all 

 over with slender stings, which easily separate, and become very trou- 

 blesome to those who open the stones ; within is a kidney-shaped 

 kernel covered with a brownish membrane, and very good to eat ; it 

 is commonly served at table. It is called Pekea by the blacks in 

 the neighbourhood of Oyapoco in French Guyana, where it is much 

 cultivated. The species that furnishes the Butter-Nuts of the London 

 markets is much like this, but is called Tata-youba by the natives 

 of Guyana, and differs in having no stings upon the surface of the 

 stone of its fruit : this is the Pekea tuberculota of Aublet ; the Caryo- 

 car tomentofum of modern botanists. 



Another species, the Caryocar nuciferum, bears what are called the 

 Suwarrow, or more properly Saouari, Nuts of commerce. It has only 

 three leaflets to each leaf, each with a toothed margin and a taper- 

 pointed extremity ; the flowers are very large, deep brown externally 

 and rich crimson in the inside; the fruit is in form like an egg, 

 covered with a thick rough brown rind, beneath which is a soft 

 greenish buttery substance. The nut has a stinging surface, and 

 contains a very excellent kernel, from which may be extracted an oil 

 like that from sweet almonds. 

 CARYOCATACTES. [NOCIFRAOA.] 



