The Walnuts and the Hickories 



edible; often replaced by spongy mass. Preferred habitat, rich 

 soil, on hillsides, North; near bogs and swamps South. Dis- 

 irihidion, Ontario to Florida; west to Kansas and Texas. Uses: 

 Lumber confused with shellbark hickory; nuts edible, but small, 

 and very thick shelled. Tree planted for ornament and shade. 



The mockernut has downy buds in winter — this alone will 

 distinguish it from the two smooth-budded shellbarks, which have 

 buds even larger than this species. The outer scales are almost 

 black on the buds of H. ovaia and H. laciniosa; on H. alba they 

 are yellowish, for the darker outer scales fall early in autumn. 

 The bark of the mockernut looks more like that of an ash than a 

 hickory. It is broken by shallow fissures into intersecting ridges, 

 and is coated with silvery scales. The branches are stout and 

 curved, giving the tree in winter an expression of strength and 

 grace. 



The heart wood is dark brown, but the white sap wood largely 

 predominates, to the advantage of the lumber. The elasticity of 

 hickory wood is somewhat lost in the mature heart wood, so sap 

 wood is best. For this reason second-growth hickory, which is 

 almost all sap wood, is especially valuable. The names alba and 

 white heart both refer to the colour of the sap wood. 



The nut is truly a mockery to anyone who considers his 

 thumbs. The husk is thick and stubbornly adherent at the base. 

 The shell is almost invulnerable. When at last it is shattered by 

 a blow, the kernel, though sweet, is small, and poorly repays the 

 trouble. Oftentimes there is no kernel at all. 



The mockernut is the commonest hickory tree in the South. 

 It is believed to hybridise with the pecan, possibly with H. ovata 

 and some varieties of H. glabra. The parentage of trees inter- 

 mediate between one species and another can only be surmised; 

 never proved. If artificial crossing produces duplicates of the 

 questionable trees, then surmises may be considered well founded. 



Nutmeg Hickory {H. myristiccEJormis, Britt.) — A tall, 

 straight tree, with narrow, open head, 80 to 100 feet high; branches 

 stout, spreading. Bark reddish brown, broken into small, scaly 

 plates; branchlets with golden scales. Wood heavy, hard, tough, 

 light brown. Buds brownish, silky, hairy, small. Leaves 7 to 1 1 

 inches long, odd pinnate, of 5 to 11 leaflets, ovate-lanceolate to 

 oblong-obovate, thin, firm, dark green, lustrous, silvery white 

 beneath, sometimes pubescent; change to bronze in autumn. 



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