LUMBER TREES 99 



bark hickory, the variations of which were re- 

 ferred to in the preceding chapter. Attention 

 was called to the fact that the hickories observed 

 as a boy in the neighborhood of my New Eng- 

 land home differed in size and form, and that the 

 nuts that they bore were sometimes oval, some- 

 times rounded in form, sometimes rough, some- 

 times smooth, sometimes thick, and sometimes 

 thin of shell, and equally diversified as to the 

 quality of their meat. But of course I should 

 be foremost to admit that all these diversities 

 were in the aggregate of minor significance in 

 comparison with the characteristics that even the 

 most divergent of the hickories had in common 

 each with all the rest. All were trees that at- 

 tained a fair size as trees go. 



All have roots and trunks and branches of the 

 same general form and aspect — as much alike, 

 for example, as the bodies and arms and legs of 

 human beings. 



All of them had leaves that could at once be 

 distinguished as being leaves of the hickory and 

 of no other tree. 



All had bark with the same characteristic 

 whitish color and the same tendency to scale off 

 in layers; and although the bark of some was 

 much rougher than that of others, any fragment 

 of bark of any hickory tree could readily enough 



