SHAGBARK HICKORY 



(Hicoria Ovatd) 



TWELVE species of hickory grow in the United States, all east of 

 the Rocky Mountains. None grow anywhere else in the world, 

 as far as known. They were widely dispersed over the northern hemis- 

 phere in prehistoric times. The records of geology, written by leaf prints 

 in the rocks, tell of forests of hickory in Europe, and even in Greenland, 

 probably a hundred thousand or more years ago, and certainly not in 

 times that can be called recent. No records there later than the ice 

 age have been found. This leads to the presumption that the sheet of 

 ice which pushed down from the North and covered the larger portions 

 of Europe and North America, overwhelmed the hickory forests, and all 

 others, as far as the southern limit of the ice's advance. 



In Europe the hickory was utterly destroyed, and it never returned 

 after the close of the reign of ice ; but America was more fortunate. The 

 ice sheet pushed little farther in its southward course than the Ohio and 

 Missouri rivers, and forests south of there held their ground, and they 

 slowly worked their way back north as the ice withdrew. Hickory 

 recovered part but not all of its lost ground in America, for it is now 

 found no farther north than southern Canada, which is more than a 

 thousand miles from its old range in Greenland. 



The early settlers in New England and in the South at once came 

 into contact with hickory. It was one of the first woods named in this 

 country, and the name is of Indian origin, and is spelled hi no fewer than 

 seventeen ways in early literature relating to the settlements. It is 

 probable that John Smith, a prominent man in early Virginia and New 

 England, was the first man who ever wrote the name. He spelled it as 

 the Indians pronounced it, "powcohiscora," and it has been trimmed 

 down to our word hickory. The Indian word was the name of a salad or 

 soup made of pounded hickory nuts and water, and was only indirectly 

 applied to the tree itself. 



The first settlers along the Atlantic coast nearly always called this 

 tree a walnut, and the name white walnut was common. They were 

 unacquainted with any similar nut-bearing tree in Europe, except the 

 walnut, and most people preferred applying a name with which they were 

 already familiar. Hickories and walnuts belong to the same family, and 

 have many points in common. 



Although there are twelve hickories in the United States, and in 

 many respects they are similar, all are not of equal value. Some are 

 very scarce, and the wood of others is not up to standard. From a 



355 



