102 THE WALNUT FAMILY. 



sippi at the New Orleans exhibition in 1884, and because ten years later he 

 passed in the state a group of children who held them in their hands. In 

 1845 it had been discovered by Fremont west of the Mississippi, and before 

 that time in South Carolina. This fruit has not at all the look of conventional 

 hickory nuts but appears quaint and more like small nutmegs. The tree's 

 wood is hard and closely grained, 



H. alba, mocker-nut, white heart hickory, or fragrant hickory as it is lat- 

 terly called from the fragrance of its nuts and pubescent foliage, ranges from 

 Florida to Ontario and westward. It bears large thick shelled nuts, the 

 kernels of which are pleasantly flavoured. The tree is tall, sometimes at- 

 taining a height of one hundred feet. Its bark is rough but close and it 

 has mostly five lanceolate-oblong leaflets. 



About the wood produced by various hickories, a genus which notably 

 belongs to North America, the trees being, as far as our present knowledge 

 extends, indigenous in no other country, there is much that is similar, 

 and they are among the most valuable the world over. In strength and 

 tenacity this wood is unexcelled ; but it is also liable to decay when exposed to 

 the atmosphere and for this reason is little used in building. For such pur- 

 poses, however, as the teeth in rakes where strength alone is required it is 

 of service. American axe handles made of hickory are of worldwide re- 

 nown as are the trotting sulkies for the construction of which no other wood 

 combines sufficient strength and lightness. On the hearth also, there is 

 none other wood to compare with that of the hickories which produces an 

 intense heat and coals that are heavy and long-lived. 



H. ovdta, the shag-bark or shell-bark hickory, called also white hickory, is 

 too well known and appreciated to need much description. Its shaggy 

 bark, separating as it does into long plates which at both ends curve away 

 from the trunk while remaining attached at their centres, is its most individ- 

 ual trait. The nuts also are those of greatest renown among the genus. 

 Through the higher Alleghanies the tree attains fine proportions and is truly 

 an imposing spectacle when seen against a sky of intense blue. 



H. lacinibsa, big shag-bark or king-nut, is noted for the truly great size 

 of its nuts, their thick husks being often two and a half or three inches long. 

 To the base they split cleanly in four sections. Their shell is pointed at 

 both ends, angled and quite uneven on the outside. It is besides thick and 

 of a dark, yellowish colour. Although sweet, the meat is less agreeably 

 flavoured than that of Hicoria ovata. This tree with its seven or nine charac- 

 teristic leaflets is rather rare and has Tennessee and North Carolina as the 

 limit of its southern range. 



H. Carorincp-septentrionalis, with its slender spray of well formed foliage 

 is another attractive individual. Its leaflets, which usually number five, are 



