The Walnuts and the Hickories 



tapering, yellow buds, which it always carries, no matter what the 

 season. There are always dormant buds in spring, even when 

 growth is at its height. One needs only to follow along any 

 twig to discover several of such lateral ones of the previous year. 

 Very soon the new buds thrust their little yellow noses up from 

 the axils of the leaves, and you have there the sign which remains 

 until growth begins next spring. 



The bark of H. minima is close and thin; the habit of the 

 tree is .like a hard maple's; its leaflets are the smallest among 

 hickories, and the twigs are the slenderest. 



One need not depend on the fruit as an identification sign. 

 The smooth, round nut comes easily out of the thin shell. But 

 the kernel, white and plump, is bitter as gall. No woodland 

 creatures eat it. This is one of the reasons why the trees are so 

 numerous. Nuts roll away from the parent tree, and are privileged 

 to grow, while edible nuts are devoured. 



The bitternut has all the good qualities of an ideal park tree, 

 and excels the other hickories in rapidity of growth. The land- 

 scape gardener of the coming generation will know and appreciate 

 it, for the native trees are receiving more and more consideration, 

 and their names are appearing, in increasing numbers, in nursery- 

 men's catalogues. 



The Bitter Pecan, or W^ater Hickory (//. aquatica, Britt.), 

 is least in size and value among the hickories, though it shoots up 

 occasionally to the height of loo feet. It grows in inundated 

 districts in swamps of the coast region from Virginia to Texas, 

 and along the Mississippi River to southern Illinois. There is 

 little to regret in its comparative uselessness, for the trees are 

 practically inaccessible. The bitter little nut is roughly sculptured 

 and ridged, reminding one of the butternut shell. This probably 

 led Michaux to call it a walnut. The kernel is thickly coated 

 with a bitter red powder, like that of the pecan. 



144 



