The Walnuts and the Hickories 



burrow. He is safe, for hickory burns very slowy, and the back- 

 log is good for many a day yet. Probably before the stronghold 

 of the youngster is reached he will have ceased his gnawing, and 

 fallen asleep in a chrysalis. Then of a sudden, some March night 

 in the midst of a thrilling tale told by the firelight, a strange 

 visitant will appear, startling the whole company, and interrupt 

 the story. It is an elegant grey beetle, with horns of surprising 

 length, made of jointed rods. After a long and arduous youth 

 spent in the dark channel of his own making, he has come forth 

 into the light equipped with wings, and ready to mingle with his 

 kind in a life of which he has probably not dreamed before. Who 

 would be so inconsiderate, so inhuman, as to cast this handsome 

 creature into the fire! Certainly nobody who knows anything 

 about the old life he has left behind him, and the new life that 

 lies before. Take him, rather, to the window, and as he flies 

 forth into the night take up the story where it was broken off. 



Pignut, White Hickory (Hicoria glabra, Britt.) — A stately, 

 round-headed tree, 50 to 100 feet high, with narrow head of pen- 

 dulous contorted branches. Bark grey, coarse, rough, not scaling 

 off in plates. IVood brown, tough, elastic, hard, heavy. Buds 

 terminal ones, globular, blunt, shedding outer scales early in win- 

 ter; inner scales expand, and recurve as leaves unfold; lateral 

 buds small, pointed. Leaves alternate, 8 to 12 inches long, odd- 

 pinnate, of 5 to 7 leaflets, oblong or obovate-lanceolate, smooth, 

 dark yellow-green; lighter and sometimes tufted with hairs in 

 axils of veins beneath; upper leaflets much larger than lower ones. 

 Flowers: staminate catkins, axillary, 4 to 7 inches long, in threes; 

 pistillate spikes, 3 to 5-flowered, terminal, greenish. Fruit pear 

 shaped, or globose; variable, thick or thin shelled, reddish brown, 

 somewhat hairy, cleft into 4 valves, partially or wholly opening; 

 nut obscurely 4-angled, smooth; kernel sweet or slightly bitter, 

 small. Preferred habitat, dry ridges and hillsides. Distribution, 

 Maine to Florida; west through Ontario and Michigan to Nebraska, 

 south to eastern Texas. Uses: Wood used as that of shagbark is. 

 A valuable ornamental and shade tree. 



The pignut is unfortunate in its common name. A fine park 

 and shade tree is under a severe handicap. For who would wish a 

 "pignut" planted in his front yard? A "smooth hickory" will 

 rather be chosen, every time — though it is the very same tree, 

 H. glabra. In the early days pigs turned into the autumn woods 



134 



