TREES GROWING IN DRY SOIL. 291 



PIG-NUT. BROOM HICKORY. (Plate CLX.) 

 Hicbria glabra. 



FAMILY SHAPE HEIGHT RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Walnut. Head y narrow; branches^ 60-90-120 feet. Maine westward April. 



slightly pendulous. and to Fla. and Fruit: Oct., Nov, 



Texas. 



Bark: light grey; close, not shaggy. Leaves: compound; alternate; odd- 

 pinnate ; growing on smooth stalks and having from five to nine sessile leaf- 

 lets, which are oblong, long-pointed at the apex and wedge-shaped, pointed or 

 rounded at the base; the lower pair of leaflets much smaller than the others; 

 sharply serrate ; thick ; dark yellowish green, and glabrous on the upper side 

 at maturity ; slightly tufted in the angles of the ribs on the under sides. 

 Flowers: greenish yellow; growing in catkins. The staminate ones, three to 

 seven inches long ; the pistillate ones growing in spikes with from two to five 

 flowers. Fruit : with a globose, or pear-shaped husk which is thin and splits 

 open only at the apex, or to about the middle. Nut : oblong, with a smooth, 

 unridged shell ; thin. Kernel : small ; very bitter. 



All undoubtedly know the pig-nut, for it is generally im- 

 pressed upon us by experience ; and to the mind clings the re- 

 membrance of early days when its nuts were eaten in error for 

 those of the good, old shagbark. Their bitter, disappointing 

 flavour vaguely touches the palate with the very name of pig- 

 nut. Throughout the northern states the tree is common and 

 well known. 



Commercially its strong, tough and flexible wood is not dis- 

 tinguished from that of the shell-bark hickories. For the 

 handles of tools, agricultural implements and the making of 

 many similar articles, it is useful. 



H0R5E CHESTNUT. (Plate CLX/.) 

 sculus Hippocastanum. 



FAMILY SHAPE HEIGHT RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Soapberry. Rounded^ compact. ->p-\ofeet. Introduced. May, June. 



Bark : brownish. Leaves : palmately-compound ; opposite ; and having 

 five, or more often seven long, oval leaflets ; abruptly pointed at the apex and 

 tapering at the base; ribs straight ; the edges scalloped and toothed. When 

 young pubescent with a brown wool. Flowers: large; cream-white, spotted 

 with yellow and purple, and growing in a terminal thysus. Calyx five-cleft. 

 Corolla: of five spreading petals raised on short claws. Stamens: seven; ex- 

 serted, with orange-coloured anthers. Pistil : one ; included. Fruit ; a 

 round, green, prickly husk which encloses within its valves one or two nuts. 

 Nut : mahogany colour; with a white scar on one side ; lustrous when young, 

 but becoming dull and wrinkled with age. Kernel : aromatic ; poisonous and 

 having a strong odour. 



