218 TREES GROWING IN RICH SOIL. 



long ovate, or obovate ; sessile, with taper-pointed apex and wedge-shaped or 

 rounded base, the lower pair of leaflets varying greatly from the others in 

 shape; sharply serrate; thin; dark yellowish green, and glabrous above; paler 

 below. Flowers : appearing after the leaves are nearly fully grown. Staminate 

 catkins : light green; slender, and growing in threes on long peduncles. Pistillate 

 ones : in spikes of from two to five flowers. Fruit: growing in a thick, green 

 husk; smooth and lustrous on the outside, and opening to the base into four 

 sections. Nut: whitish; ovate; flattened at the sides; four-angled, and con- 

 taining a sweet, highly flavoured kernel. 



After the beautiful buds have burst their bright, petal-like 

 scales, the shag-bark equips itself for the summer with a green 

 sunshade of fresh and fragrant leaves. And it is also a sun- 

 shade that is picturesque and exquisite in outline. There is 

 besides no need of putting on one's spectacles before bowing to 

 the tree. Its strange, shaggy bark at once proclaims its ident- 

 ity, and formality is forgotten. With tranquil steadiness it 

 produces every year its fruit a dainty gift to mankind. Were 

 it only for its own purposes of reproduction there would be no 

 need of its having so fine and sweet a flavour. It is the 

 well-known hickory nut of the market. Those that wander 

 much in the woods know well that a bit of self-restraint is nec- 

 essary in the early autumn; for these nuts will not be hurried 

 in their ripening, and no more pleasure is to be had from gath- 

 ering them too soon than there is from trying to unfold for 

 oneself the petals of a rose. 



The brownish-white wood of the shag-bark is tough, elastic 

 and very valuable. Its uses are many. 



H. lacinibsa, big shell-bark, or king nut, is a rare tree which 

 occasionally grows one hundred and twenty feet high, and is 

 found in rich soil from New York and Pennsylvania southward 

 and westward. It has a light grey bark which separates into 

 thin, narrow plates, and the young branchlets are orange colour. 

 The leaves are from ten to twenty inches long and have from 

 five to nine obovate leaflets. Either solitary, or in pairs, the 

 nuts grow, and they are much larger than those of the shag- 

 bark hickory. In fact, to one that sees them for the first time, 

 their size is astonishing. Their shell is also darker, with a yel- 





