118 



PRACTICAL FORESTRY. 



Kernels sometimes sweet and good, then again scarcely eatable. 

 The "King nut," known in the Genesee Valley, N. Y., is said 

 to belong to this species, although its shell is quite thin, and 

 the kernel large and excellent. The wood of this species is as 

 variable in quality as the nuts are, and while, as a rule, it is 

 very white, heavy, and only moderately tough. I have cut trees 

 that gave the straighest grained, and toughest hickory wood 

 I ever handled. A veiy tall but slender tree, with a rough, 

 deeply-furrowed bark on old trees, but does not spUt off in 

 strips, as in the last two species. More common on high, dry 

 ridges, than in low lands, plentiful in the sandstone regions of 

 Xew Jersey and southward to Florida. Also in IS^ew England, 

 Canada, and westward. 



C.olivjeformis.— Pecan-nut.— Leaflets thirteen to fifteen, oblong- 

 lanceolate, taper-pointed. Fruit cylindical oblong, nut olive 

 shaped, yellowish-brown, shell very 

 thin, kernel sweet and delicious. The 

 nuts are usually a httle over an inch 

 long, and quite regular m fonn ; but an 

 occasional tree will produce much larger 

 nuts or of the size shown in figure 30, 

 which was made from a fair average 

 number of these nuts received from a 

 coiTCspondent in Louisiana. 



The Pecan-nut tree gi'ows to a large 



size in the bottom lands along the rivers 



in the South and West. Wood similar 



to that of the Shell-bark Hickory, and 



very valuable. Southern Illinois is its 



Fig. 30.— PECAN NUT. northern limits in its wild state, but it 



has been cultivated in more northern locahties with rather in- 



differeut success. 



C. porcina, Nutt. — Pig-nut, Brown Hickory. — Leaflets five to 

 seven, ovate-lanceolate, smooth. Fruit ovate, oblong, or pear- 

 shaped, quite variable in size and form. Husk thin, opening at 

 the top, often remaining on the thick shelled nut all winter. 

 Kernel usually bitter, but sometimes pleasant flavored. A 

 large tree, with smooth bark, common in the same regions as 

 the White-heart Hickory, and the wood very similar. 



C. amara, Nutt. — Bitter-nut, Swamp Hickory. — Leaflets seven 

 to eleven, oblong-lanceolate, pointed, slightly downy when 

 young. Buds on the small, slender twigs, yellowish in winter, 



