70 



TREE ANCESTORS 



fuel, estimated for that year at about a million cords— for hickory 

 is also the best American fuel wood. 



With the exception of a single species (Hicoria cathayensis) of 

 restricted range in the provinces of Chekiang and Kweichow, China, 

 the existing hickories are entirely confined to North America, and 

 more particularly to the eastern United States, although there is 

 one in Mexico {Hicoria mexicana), and three or four others reach 



Fig. 12. Map Showing the Areas Where Hickories Are Found at the 



Present Time (solid black) and the Areas Over Which They 



Are Known to Have Spread During Their Past History 



their northern limit of growth beyond the Great Lakes in eastern 

 Canada. The hickory does not have the legendary qualities or the 

 poetic references of many a less noble tree largely because it had 

 already become extinct in Europe before the human race first 

 invaded that continent in the days of the Old Stone Age. If our 

 European ancestors had known hickory doubtless it would have 

 shared if not replaced the place taken by such trees as the oak or 

 the ash in folklore. 



