182 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



more or Jess thickly with bright yellow scales, 1^' long, l'-lj' wide, with a thin brittle 

 husk splitting tardily and usually only to the middle; nut flattened, slightly obovoid, 

 nearly as broad as long, rounded and abruptly short-pointed at apex, rounded at the nar- 

 row base, 4-angled and ridged, dark reddish brown, and longitudinally and very irregularly 

 wrinkled, with a thin shell; seed oblong, compressed, dark brown, irregularly and usually 

 longitudinally furrowed, very bitter. 



A tree, occasionally 80-100 high, with a trunk rarely exceeding 2 in diameter, slender 

 upright branches forming a narrow head, and slender dark reddish brown or ashy gray 

 lustrous branchlets marked by numerous pale lenticels, at first slightly glandular and 

 coated with loose pale tomentum, glabrous or puberulous during the summer, and marked 

 during the winter by small nearly oval or obscurely 3-lobed slightly elevated leaf-scars, 

 growing dark red-brown and ultimately gray. Winter-buds slightly flattened, acute, 

 dark reddish brown, covered with caducous yellow scales; terminal i'-j' long, often 

 villose; axillary much smaller, frequently nearly sessile, often solitary. Bark \'-\' thick, 

 separating freely into long loose plate-like light brown scales tinged with red. Wood heavy, 

 strong, close-grained, rather brittle, dark brown, with thick light-colored or often nearly 

 white sapwood; occasionally used for fencing and fuel. 



Distribution. River swamps often inundated during a considerable part of the year from 

 southeastern Virginia southward through the coast regions to the shores of Indian River 

 and the valley of the Suwanee River, Florida, through the maritime portions of the Gulf 

 states to the valley of the Brazos River, Texas, and northward through western Louisiana 

 to southeastern Missouri, and to northeastern Louisiana, western Mississippi, and the valley 

 of the lower Wabash River, Illinois; passing into the var. australis Sarg. with narrower 

 leaflets, smaller ellipsoidal fruit, pale red-brown nuts without longitudinal wrinkles, and 

 with close not scaly bark of the trunk. A large tree in dry sandy soil; high banks of the 

 St. John's River, near San Mateo, Putnam County, near Jupiter, Palm Beach County, 

 banks of the Caloosahatchie River at Alma, Lee County, and Old Town, Lafayette 

 County, Florida; near Marshall, Harrison County, Texas. 



5. Carya myristicaeformis Nutt. Nutmeg Hickory. 



Leaves 7'-14' long, with slender terete scurfy-pubescent petioles, and 7-9, occasionally 

 5, ovate-lanceolate to broadly obovate acute leaflets usually equally or sometimes un- 

 equally cuneate or rounded at the narrow base, coarsely serrate, short-stalked or nearly 



Fig. 173 



sessile, thin and firm, dark green above, more or less pubescent or nearly glabrous and sil- 

 very white and very lustrous below, 4'-5' long, 1'-!$' wide, with a pale scurfy pubescent 



