30 HOUGH'S AMERICAN WOODS. 



appearance seen in the bark of the common Shell-bark H., excepting that 

 the strips may be narrower. A common feature, which is conspicuous in 

 winter, is the retention of some of the leaves, which become whipped 

 out in the wind so that only the tough, fibrous stalks remain among the 

 otherwise naked branches. 



HABITAT. New York (sparingly about the lakes in the central region), 

 Pennsylvania and south westward through the Ohio valley to Kansas and 

 Indian Territory, growing in rich, moist bottom-lands. It is rare and 

 local east of the Alleghanies and reaches its greatest development in the 

 western part of its range. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. Wood heavy, hard, strong, tough and flexible, 

 of a rich brown color with abundant cream-white sap-wood. Specific 

 Gravity, 0.8108; Percentage of Ash, 0.90; Relative Approximate Fuel 

 Value, 0.8035; Coefficient of Elasticity, 103884; Modulus of Rupture, 

 1083; Resistance to Longitudinal Pressure, 559; Resistance to Indenta- 

 tion, 288; Weight of a Cubic Foot in Pounds, 50.53. 



USES. This timber, like that of the common Shell-bark H., is of 

 peculiar value in the manufacture of agricultural implements, and partic- 

 ularly the spokes of wheels, axe-helves and tool handles where combined 

 strength and toughness are required. 



The delicious nuts of this tree are an important product and always 

 find a ready market. 



MEDICINAL PROPERTIES are those common to most if not all of the 

 Hickories. The leaves are somewhat aromatic and astringent, and the 

 bark astringent and bitter. Great advantage has been found from chew- 

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

 success in the treatment of intermittent fever.* 



65. CARYA PORCINA, NUTT.* 



PIG-NUT HICKORY, BROWN HICKORY, BLACK HICKORY. 

 Ger., Ferkelnusz; Fr., Noyer de cochon; Sp., Nogal de puercos. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: Leaflets 5-7, oblong or obovate-lanceolate, taper- pointed, 

 serrate, nearly or quite smooth both sides, as are also the new shoots and catkins; 

 bud-scales caducous. Flowers (March-May): Staminate catkins in 3s on a common 

 peduncle, at the base of the shoots of the season; lobes of calyx nearly equal in 

 length, the lateral ones broader. Fruit quite variable in size and shape, from sub- 

 spherical to obovate and pear-shape, furnished with fine resinous dots of balsamic 

 odor, with shuck (epicarp) thin, brittle at maturity and 4-valved, the valves not sep- 

 arating freely to the base, nut compressed-globular or compressed-pyriform, smooth 

 or slightly ridged, thick-shelled; kernel variable in flavor, usually sweet at first, 

 but afterward bitter. 



(Porcirta is a Latin adjective signifying of the pig and applicable here in allusion 

 to the avidity with which the nuts are devoured by those animals.) 



*U. 8. Dispensatory, 16th ed., p. 1744. t Hicoria gldbra, (Mill.) Brit. 



