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THE HICKORIES— CAETA, Nuttall. 



The Hickories and the Walnuts belong to the same family. AH 

 species of Hickory, so far as known, are native to the part of North 

 America lying east of the Rocky Mountains. Geological records in- 

 form us that the ancient forests of hickory extended into Greenland 

 and Europe. None of the fossil species .shows evidence of living after 

 the ice age. This suggests the presumption that the hickory forests 

 were completely destroyed by sheets of ice advancing from the North 

 towards the South. These sheets covered a large part of Europe 

 and North America. Today no native species of Hickory are found 

 in Europe, showing that they were completely exterminated during 

 the ice age. In North America the ice covered only a portion of the 

 range of hickory. Hickory is found loday not only in the non- 

 glaciated region of North America but in addition it has regained 

 some of the lost territory. The northern limit of Hickory is, how- 

 ever, still about 1,000 miles .south of its northern limit in the ancient 

 flora of Greenland. The range of some of the more important species 

 of Hickory has been extended by man. 



The Hickories have alternate, compound and odd-pinnate leaves. 

 The leaf-scars are large and conspicuous. The flowers are unisex- 

 ual. The staminate or male f pollen-bearing) flowers are produced in 

 long slender, drooping aments. The aments are usuaDy in 3s, united 

 near the base of twig into a common stalk which is attached to the 

 twig at the base of the new growth. The pistillate or female flowers 

 which develop into the fruit occur at the end of the season's twigs in 

 spike-like clusters of 2-fi. The fruit resulting from the development 

 of the pistillate flowers matures in one season. The nuts are ovoid 

 to cylindrical and covered with a husk which is 4-valved. In most 

 species the husk splits open at least to the middle when it becomes 

 dry but in a few species it separates very little. 



The Hickories are amongst our most important timber trees. They 

 are not important because they produce a large quantity of wood 

 but because they produce a special quality of wood used for special 

 purposes for which no substitutes have been found. The wood is 

 unsurpassed for such uses where strength combined with lightness 

 is desired. It is largely used for handles and in the manufacture 

 of our best carriages, especially in the construction of the wheels. 

 Not all of the species, however, produce valuable wood. The wood 

 of the Bitter Nut Hickory is relatively of little value. The nuts of 

 a few species are edible. The.se nuts were used for food and for 

 oil by the Indians and at the present time they are used extensively 



