272 TKEES IN WINTER 



PIGNUT 

 Pignut or Broom Hickory. 



Carya glabra (Mill.) Spach. 

 C. porcina Nutt. ; Hickoria glabra Britton. 



HABIT — A good sized tree, 50-60 ft. in height with a trunk diameter 

 of 2-5 feet.; branches slender, more or less contorted, the lower ones 

 especially usually strongly pendulous, forming a narrow oblong head, 

 well shown in the tree photographed, or broader in other specimens. 



BARIv — Dark gray, fissured into irregular diamond-shaped areas 

 somewhat suggesting bark of White Ash, but narrow ridges flattened, 

 tough, tending to become detached at ends; sometimes somewhat shaggy 

 especially in one of the varieties mentioned below, which has a bark 

 approaching that of the Shag-bark Hickory. 



TVA'IGS — Comparatively slender for the genus, smooth, reddish-brown 

 to gray. LENTICELS — numerous, longitudinally elongated, more or 

 less conspicuous. PITH — obscurely 5-pointed, star-shaped. 



liEAF-SCARS — Alternate, more than 2-ranked, obscurely 3-lobed, 

 heart-shaped to semi-circular or oblong. BUNDLE-SCARS — numerous, 

 irregularly scattered or collected in 3 more or less definite groups. 



BUDS — Reddish-brown to gray, small, terminal bud under 10 mm. 

 long, oval, blunt or sharp-pointed, becoming subglobose toward spring. 

 BUD-SCALES — outer scales dark, smooth or finely downy, generally 

 slightly yellow glandular-dotted, more or less keeled, and sometimes 

 long-pointed, often falling before the end of winter and exposing the 

 pale-silky inner scales. 



FRUIT — Pear-shaped to oblong to nearly spherical, 3-5 cm. long; very 

 variable in size and shape; husk under 2 mm. thick, in some forms 

 splitting only at the apex and enclosing the nut after it has fallen 

 to the ground, in other forms splitting to the iniddle or to the base. 

 NUT — Lhick or rather thin shelled, generally not ridged nor sharp- 

 pointed; seed sweet or sometimes bitter. 



COMPARISOIVS — The Pignut is a very variable species and there are 

 several varieties described, some of which have been recognized as 

 distinct species, as for instance Carya microcarpa Nutt., — the Small- 

 fruited Hickory — which is perhaps the most conspicuous. It has a 

 somewhat shaggy bark and a nearly spherical fruit with the husk 

 splitting to the base. The most distinctive feature of the whole spe- 

 cies is the small size of the buds, which before the outer dark scales 

 drop off resemble buds of the Shag-bark Hickory except for size, and 

 after these outer scales have been shed may be compared with minia- 

 ture Mockernut buds. Its bark is not smoothed off like that of the 

 Mockernut nor except in extreme cases shaggy like that of the Shag- 

 bark. 



DISTRIBUTION — "Woods, dry hills and uplands. Niagara pensinsula 

 and along Lake Erie; south to the Gulf of Mexico; west to Minnesota, 

 Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. 



IN NEW ENGLAND— Maine — frequent in the southern corner of 

 York county; New Hampshire — common toward the coast and along the 

 lower Merrimac valley; abundant on hills near the Connecticut river, 

 but only occasional above Bellows Falls; Vermont — Marsh Hill, Ferris- 

 burgh, W. Castleton and Pownal; Massachusetts — common eastward; 

 along the Connecticut river valley and some of the tributary valleys, 

 more common than the Shag-bark; Connecticut — occasional or frequent; 

 Rhode Island — common. 



"WOOD — Heavy, hard, very strong and tough, flexible, light or dark 

 brown, with thick, lighter colored or often nearly white sapwood; used 

 for the handles of tools and in the manufacture of wagons and agri- 

 cultural implements, and largely for fuel. 



