34 HOUGH'S AMERICAN WOODS. 



91. CARYA MICROCARPA, Nutt* 

 SMALL-FRUITED HICKORY. 



Ger., Kleinfruchtige Hickory; Fr., Noyer a petit fruit; Sp., Nogal de 



fruto pequeno. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. Leaflets 5-7, glabrous, with resinous dots beneath, from 

 obovate to oblong -lanceolate, taper-pointed, obtuse and mostly inequilateral at base, 

 excepting the terminal leaflet which is more cuneate, serrate with short teeth. 

 Flowers as described for the genus, the staminate catkins in threes on a common 

 peduncle, at the base of the shoots of the season. Fruit globose or pyriform, with 

 thin friable epicarp and with small subglobular or subovoid and compressed smooth 

 very thin-shelled nut, usually f in. or less in diameter and with sweet and delicious 

 kernel. 



(The specific name, microcarpa, is from the Gk. jj.iKpt$ small, and napito^ fruit.) 



A tree of upright habit of growth, with rather broad, rounded top, 

 sometimes attaining the height of 80 ft. (24 in.) and with a trunk 2 or 

 3 ft. (0.80 m.) in diameter, clothed with close firmly adherent longitudi- 

 nally ridged bark of an ash-gray color. 



HABITAT. North-eastern United States, generally growing on rich 

 uplands and hill-sides. 



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

 ble; of a reddish brown color and creamy-white sap-wood. 



USES. A valuable wood for the same uses as those mentioned for the 

 Mokernut, as in the hands of wheel-wrights, etc. 



MEDICINAL PROPERTIES are those common to the genus and already 

 mentioned of the C. tomentosa, etc. 



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 flowers 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 min- 

 ute 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 ; 

 seed albumenless, with an anatropous, often edible, embyro ; 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, 1-seeded. 



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

 cuez, tree.) 



*Hicoria microcarpia (Nutt.), Britt. 



