1446 



AllBOKETUM AND FRUTICETUM. 



PART III. 



1268 



black jack oak (Quercus nigra var. ferruginea) are the only 

 trees to be seen. They survive the conflagrations which 

 almost every year envelope the prairies; but their vegetation 

 is checked by the fire, and they rarely exceed the height of 

 8ft. or 10ft. (^ Amer. Syl.,\. p. 177.) Of all the hickories, 

 this species is of the slowest growth ; a fact, Michaux adds, 

 that he has proved, by planting nuts of the several species 

 together, and comparing the length of their annual shoots. 

 It is, also, more liable to be attacked by worms than any 

 other kind of hickory ; especially by the larva of Calif dium 

 flexuosum (fig. 1268.), which eats into the body of the tree. 



^ 5. C. A'LBA Nutt. The white-nutted Carya, or Shell-bark Hickory. 



Identification. Nutt. Gen. N. Amer. PL, 2. p. 221. 



Synoni/mes. Jiiglans alba Michx. Fl. Bar. Amer., 2. p. 193., Pursh Fl. Amer. Sept., 2. p. 458., and 



Lin. Sp. PL, 1415., on Pursh's citation ; J. &lba ovata Marsh. Arb., 115. ; J. squamiSsa Michx. Arb., 



1 p 190, A'or/A Amer. Sylva, 1. p. 181.; J. comprssa Gcertn. Sem., 2. p. 51., MUhlenb. in Nov. 



Act. Soc. Nat. Scrut. Berol., 3. p. 390., Willd. Sp. PI., 4. p. 458. j Shag-bark Hickory, Scaly-bark 



Hickory, Kisky Thomas Nut, Amer. ; Noyer tendre, Illinois. 

 Engravings Gsertn. Sera. 2. t. 19.; Pluk. Aim., t. 309. f. 2.; Michx. Arb., 1. t. 7.; N. Amer 



Sylva, i? t. 36. ; Wats. Dend. Brit, 1. 148. ; our fig. 1269. ; and the plate of this tree in our last Vol. 



Spec. Char., $c. Leaflets, in a leaf, 5 7 ; oblong-acuminate, argutely serrate ; 

 villous beneath ; the pair nearest to the base of the petiole rather remote 

 from it ; terminal leaflet nearly sessile. Catkin glabrous. Fruit depressedly 

 globose, with 4 longitudinal furrows, in the line of which the husk divides 

 into 4 valves that become wholly separate. Nut compressed, oblique, 

 4-angled in its transverse outline, white. Bark exfoliating in long narrow 

 strips. {Michx. N. A. S., Pursh Fl. A. S.) A native of North America, 

 in forests where the soil is fertile, from New England to Carolina, and 

 throughout the Alleghany Mountains ; and flowering, in America, in April 

 and May. Introduced in 1629. 



Description, $c. This species, Michaux observes, is named shell-bark, shag- 

 bark, or scaly-bark, from the striking appearance of its outer bark, which 

 peels off in long narrow plates, that curl up at their extremities, and only adhere 

 in the middle. Of 

 all the hickories, 

 this species grows 

 to the greatest 

 height, with pro- 

 portionately the 

 smallest diame- 

 ter ; being some- 

 times seen 80 ft. 

 or 90 ft. high, 

 with a trunk clear 

 of branches, and 

 not more than 

 2 ft. in diameter 



for three fourths of its length. The buds are formed of scales, closely applied 

 upon one another; the two external ones adhering, though only half the 

 length of the bud ; which disposition of the scales is peculiar to C. alba and 

 C. sulcata, and seems to indicate, according to Michaux, the exfoliating cha- 

 racter of the epidermis of the bark. When the sap begins to ascend in the 

 spring, the outer scales fall, and the inner ones swell, and become covered 

 with a yellow silky down. After a fortnight, the buds attain the length of 2 in., 

 and the young leaves are protruded. The growth of the leaves is so rapid, 

 that in a month they attain their full length, which, in vigorous trees, is some- 

 times above 20 in. They consist of 2 pairs of leaflets, with a sessile odd one. 

 The leaflets are very large, oval-acuminate, serrated, and slightly downy under- 

 neath. The barren flowers, which, in the state of New York, appear from the 

 15th to the 20th of May, arc disposed on long, glabrous, filiform, pendulous 



1269 



