180 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



yellow articulate hairs; the terminal oblong, acute, or acuminate, somewhat compressed, 

 about j' long, and rather longer than the upper lateral bud. Bark |'-f ' thick, light reddish 

 brown, and roughened by closely appressed variously shaped plate-like scales. Wood 

 close-grained, tough and strong, light red-brown, with pale brown sapwood. 



Distribution. Bottom-lands and low wet woods; valley of the lower Brazos River, 

 Texas; near Lake Charles, Calcasieu Parish, and Laurel Hill, West Feliciana Parish, Lou- 

 isiana; near Natchez, Adams County, Mississippi; valley of the Arkansas River (Arkansas 

 Post, Arkansas County, and Van Buren, Crawford County), Arkansas. 



3. Carya cordiformis K. Koch. Pignut. Bitternut. 



Leaves 6'-10' long, with slender pubescent or hirsute petioles, and 7-9 lanceolate to 

 ovate-lanceolate or obovate long-pointed sessile leaflets coarsely serrate except at the 

 equally or unequally cuneate or subcordate base, thin and firm, dark yellow-green and gla- 

 brous above, lighter and pubescent below, especially along the midrib, 4 '-6' long, f'-li' 

 wide, or occasionally 2'-4' wide (var. latifolia Sarg.). Flowers: staminate in slightly 



Fig. 171 



pubescent aments, 3'-4' long, coated with rufous hairs like its ovate acute bract; stamens 

 4, with yellow anthers deeply emarginate and villose at apex; pistillate in 1 or 2-flowered 

 spikes, slightly 4-angled, covered with yellow scurfy tomentum. Fruit cylindric or slightly 

 compressed, f'-U' long, obovoid to subglobose, or oblong and acute at apex (var. elongata 

 Ashe), 4-winged from the apex to about the middle, with a thin puberulous husk, more or 

 less thickly coated with small yellow scales; nut ovoid or oblong, often broader than long, 

 compressed and marked at base with dark lines along the sutures and alternate with them, 

 depressed or obcordate, and abruptly contracted into a long or short point at apex, gray 

 tinged with red or light reddish brown, with a thin brittle shell; seed bright reddish brown, 

 very bitter, much compressed, deeply rugose, with irregular cross-folds. 



A tree, often 100 high, with a tall straight trunk 2-3 in diameter, stout spreading 

 branches forming a broad handsome head, and slender branchlets marked by oblong 

 pale lenticels, bright green and covered more or less thickly with rusty hairs when they first 

 appear, reddish brown and glabrous or puberulous during their first summer, reddish 

 brown and lustrous during the winter and ultimately light gray, with small elevated ob- 

 scurely 3-lobed obcordate leaf-scars. Winter-buds compressed, scurfy pubescent, bright 

 yellow; terminal |'-f' long, oblique at apex, with 2 pairs of scales; lateral 2-angled, often 

 stalked, f'-J' long, with ovate pointed slightly accrescent scales keeled on the back. 

 Bark \'-\' thick, light brown tinged with red, and broken into thin plate-like scales sepa- 



