65. CARYA PORCINA PIG-NCT HICKORY. 31 



A large tree attaining the height of 80-100 ft. (26-30 m.) or rarely 

 more, and with a trunk 3-4 ft. (1 m.) in diameter, with dark gray 

 bark which checks with age and becomes somewhat rough, though not 

 exfoliating in long loose strips as with the Shell-bark Hickory. 



HABITAT. From the valley of the St. Lawrence river and southern 

 Ontario southward throughout the eastern United States generally to the 

 gulf, on dry uplands and hill-sides 



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

 with rich brown heart and ample whitish sap-wood. Specific Gravity, 

 0.8217; Percentage of Ash, 0.99; Relative Approximate- Fuel Value, 

 0.8136; Coefficient of Elasticity, 103300; Modulus of Rupture, 1046; 

 Resistance to Longitudinal Pressure, 577; Resistance to Indentation, 

 301; Weight of a Cubic Foot in Pounds, 51.21. 



USES. Like the other Hickories a valuable timber in the manufacture 

 of agricultural implements, wheels, tool-handles, etc., where combined 

 toughness and strength are required. 



The nuts of this species are not often gathered owing to their generally 

 inferior flavor, and the difficulty of extracting their meats, though indi- 

 vidual trees do sometimes produce nuts of excellent quality. 



MEDICINAL PROPERTIES are the same as those noted of the Big Shell- 

 bark Hickory (page 30). 



ORDER CUPULIFERJE : OAK FAMILY. 



Leaves alternate, simple, straight-veined ; the stipules, forming the bud-scales, 

 deciduous. Flowers monoecious, apetalous. Sterile flowers in clustered or racemed 

 catkins (or in simple clusters in the Beech); calyx regular or scale-like; stamens 5-20. 

 Fertile floicers solitary, clustered or spiked, and furnished with an involucre which 

 forms a cup or covering to the nut; calyx-tube adherent to the ovary, its teeth mi- 

 nute and crowning the summit ; ovary 2-7-celled with 1-2 pendulous ovules in each 

 cell, but all of the cells and ovules, except one, disappearing before maturity; stig- 

 mas sessile. Fruit a 1-celled, 1-seeded nut, solitary or several together, and partly 

 or wholly covered by the scaly (in some cases echinate) involucral cup or covering ; 

 peed albumenless, with an anatropous, often edible, embryo ; cotyledons thick and 

 fleshy. 



Represented by both trees and shrubs. 



GENUS QUERCUS L. 



Flowers greenish or yellowish. Sterile flowers in loose, slender, naked catkins, 

 which spring singly or several together from axillary buds; calyx 2-8-parted or 

 cleft; stamens 3-12; anthers 2-celled. Fertile flowers with ovary nearly 3-celled and 

 6-ovuled, 2 of the cells and 5 of the ovules being abortive ; stigma 3-lobed; involu- 

 cre developing into a hard, scaly cup around the base of the nut or acorn, which is 

 1-celled and 1-seeded. 



(The ancient Latin name for the Oak supposed to be from the Celtic quer, fine, and 

 cuez, tree.) 



