162 NUT GROWING 



When people speak of the hickory without quali- 

 fication they are apt to have in mind some one kind 

 of hickory which belonged to their childhood en- 

 vironment. The names of all other kinds which they 

 happen to know are qualified in some way, very much 

 as the word "fish" in Boston stands for codfish only 

 and "bird" among southern sportsmen stands for 

 bobwhite. In the northeast "hickory" means the 

 shagbark, in Missouri it means the shellbark. Else- 

 where the pignut and mockernut are called hickory. 

 Interest in the subject has increased so rapidly of 

 late years that we must now be more particular in 

 our descriptions and add qualifying names, speaking 

 always of the shagbark hickory, pecan hickory, or 

 bitternut hickory as the case may be. Sargent de- 

 scribes sixteen species of hickory and in addition a 

 large number of varieties due to environment and 

 varieties due to hybridization. There is also a Mexi- 

 can hickory, making seventeen species for the North 

 American continent. The late Mr. F. N. Meyer, 

 Agricultural Explorer from Washington, found a 

 hickory of the pecan group in China. Previous to 

 his discovery it was believed that hickories belonged 

 to the North American continent only at the present 

 day, although fossils indicate their former presence 

 in northern Asia before the ice cap made trouble. 



It is not improbable that a number of species of 

 hickory not yet described may be found in this coun- 

 try. So distinct and notable a species as the Buckley 

 hickory, Carya Buckleyi, common in the forest re- 

 gions of eastern Texas and the Ozark hills of Okla- 



