100 LUTHER BURBANK 



be distinguished as characteristic of the species, 

 and as not by any chance having grown on any 

 other kind of tree. 



Then, too, if the hickory tree were felled and 

 cut into firewood, the texture and fiber of the 

 wood itself enabled anyone who glanced at it to 

 pronounce it hickory as definitely and with as 

 much certitude as if he had seen the tree 

 while living and in full leaf. No other wood 

 had quite the same whiteness as the pignut 

 hickory, or quite the same strength and elasticity 

 of fiber. 



The Indians had learned this in the old days, 

 and had used the hickory of a preference always 

 in making their bows. 



We boys, in our barbaric age, followed the 

 Indian's example. We knew that a bow of 

 hickory had elastic qualities that no other bow 

 could hope to match. 



All in all, then, the hickory, despite the trivi- 

 alities of variation which are mentioned in the 

 preceding chapter, stands apart when we come 

 to examine it comprehensively, as a tree differ- 

 ing from all others and obviously entitled to 

 stand as a unified and differentiated genus. 



And what is true of the hickory is no less true 

 of each and every species of tree in our forest. 

 Each walnut and oak and beech and birch and 



