Carya 



599 



CARYA OLIV^FORMIS, Pecan Nut 



Carya olivceformis, Nuttall, Gen. Am. ii. 221 (1818); Loudon, Arh. et Frut. Brit. iii. 1441 (1838). 



Carya angustifolia. Sweet, Hort. Brit. 97 (1827). 



Carya i/linoinensis, Koch, Dendrol. i. 593 (1869). 



Carya Pecan, Schneider, ex Sargent in Bot. Gazette, xliv. 226 (1907). 

 Juglans Pecan, Marshall, Arbust. Am. 69 (1785). 

 Juglans illinoinensis, Wangenheitn, Nordam. Holz. 54 (1787). 

 Juglans angustifolia, Aiton, Hort. Ke7v, iii. 361 (1789). 

 Juglans cylindrica, Poiret, in Lamarck, Diet. iv. 505 (1797). 

 Juglans olivceformis, Michaux, Fl. Bor. Am. ii. 192 (1803). 



Hicoria Pecan, Britton, Bull Torrey Bot. Club, xv. 282 (1888); Sargent, Silva N. Amer. vii. 137, 

 tt. 338, 339 (1895), and Trees N. Amer. 133 (1905). 



A tree, attaining in America 170 feet in height and 18 feet in girth. Bark, 

 brownish, deeply and irregularly divided into narrow forked ridges. Buds, similar 

 to those of C. amara, but greyish -white in colour, densely pubescent and without 

 glands ; lateral buds ovoid, pointed. Young branchlets densely pubescent, especially 

 towards the tip, where no glands are present, but with minute glands at the base of 

 the shoot. Leaves (Plate 203, Fig. 6), 12 to 20 inches long. Leaflets, eleven to 

 thirteen or more, rarely nine, lanceolate, falcate, subsessile, acuminate, very unequally 

 divided by the midrib ; upper surface with stellate pubescence on the midrib and 

 nerves ; lower surface covered throughout with fine scattered pubescence and 

 numerous glands ; margin plainly ciliate ; rachis densely pubescent. 



Staminate flowers in sessile or subsessile clustered catkins, usually on the 

 previous year's branchlets. Fruit in clusters of three to eleven, pointed, four-winged 

 and -angled, i to 2^ inches long, \ to i inch broad ; husk thin, brittle, dark-brown, 

 coated with yellow pubescence, splitting when ripe nearly to the base ; nut, thin- 

 shelled, reddish-brown with irregular black markings ; seed sweet, reddish-brown. 



(A. H.) 



The Pecan is a native of the Middle States, occurring from Indiana, Southern 

 Illinois and Iowa, southward through Western Kentucky and Tennessee to Alabama 

 and Mississippi, and extending westward through Missouri, South-Eastern Kansas, 

 Arkansas, Indian Territory and Louisiana to the valley of the Concho River in 

 Texas. It is also met with in the mountains of Mexico. 



It chiefly grows on rich alluvial soil, along the banks of streams, and attains a 

 greater size than any other hickory. Ridgway says it is one of the very largest 

 trees of the forest, being only exceeded in height by the tulip tree and the scarlet oak. 

 He records one tree, measured by Dr. Schneck, which was 175 feet high by 16 feet 

 in girth, and another 30 feet in girth at the ground. It is largely cultivated in the 

 Southern States for its fruit, which has been improved by selection and grafting, 

 and is considered the best of the nuts of North America. 



It requires a much longer and hotter summer than any part of Great Britain 

 affords ; and even in the south of Europe we have not heard of its being successfully 



