26 HOUGH'S AMERICAK WOODS. 



36. CARYA ALBA, NUTT. 

 SHELL-BARK HICKORY, SHAG-BARK HICKORY. 



Ger., Rindenschdlende Hickory ; Fr., Noyer tendre ; Sp., Nogal de 



America. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. Leaves with long petioles and 5 finely aerate leaflets 

 which are subsessile excepting the terminal one, the upper three obovate-lanceolate 

 and the lower two very much smaller, defiexed and oblong-lanceolate, all taper- 

 pointed and minutely downy beneath, especially when young, inner bud-scales 

 persist for a time and become large and conspicuous. Flowers appear in April or 

 May; sterile catkins long, pendulous and in threes with common peduncle; fertile 

 flowers 2 or 3 together, sessile. Fruit depressed-globular, the four valves of the 

 epicarp being thick (though quite variable in this), woody, distinct and promptly 

 separating to the base; nut nearly white, roundish, compressed, slightly mucronate, 

 the shell rather thin and the kernel sweet and delicious. 



(" Alba" is the Latin for white.) 



A sturdy and beautiful tree with long slim trunk and always noticeable, 

 when of sufficient age, from the long plates of its outer bark which 

 bristle or hang loosely about it, giving it a decidedly shaggy appearance, 

 and it is from this that it receives its name. It sometimes attains and 

 rarely surpasses the height of 100 ft. (30 m.) and 3 ft. (0.90m.) in thick- 

 ness of trunk. 



HABITAT. Eastern United States generally, west to beyond the 

 Mississippi river and south nearly to the Gulf coast; said to thrive best 

 west of the Alleghany Mountains. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. Wood very heavy, tough, strong and flexi- 

 ble; the heart-wood is of a light-brown color and the sap-wood creamy- 

 white. Specific Gravity, 0.8372; Percentage of Ash, 0.73; Relative Ap- 

 proximate Fuel Value, 0.8311; Coefficient of Elasticity, 138839; Modulus 

 of Rupture, 1200; Resistance to Longitudinal Pressure, 625; Resistance 

 to Indentation, 271; Weight of a Cubic Foot in Pounds, 52.17. 



USES. A very valuable wood for agricultural implements, the wheels 

 and runners of vehicles, axe-helves, baskets, etc., and its nuts are an 

 important article of commerce, most of the hickory nuts of the market 

 being produced by this species. 



MEDICINAL PROPERTIES. The leaves of most, if not all, of the 

 hickories are somewhat aromatic and astringent, and the bark astringent 

 and bitter. Great advantage has been found from chewing the inner 

 bark in dyspepsia, and a tincture has been used with great success in the 

 treatment of intermittent fever.* 



* U. S. Dispensatory, 16th ed., p. 1744. 



