WALNUT FAMILY 



hairy bract, is one-fourth inch long, bright yellow green, slightly 

 hairy, usually six-lobed, the side lobes bearing tufts of brown hairs. 

 Stamens from eight to twelve, with nearly sessile dark brown an- 

 thers, surmounted by darker connectives. Pistillate flowers are 

 borne in six to eight-flowered spikes ; one-third of an inch long, ma- 

 turing later than the staminate. The bract and bractlets which 

 form the outer covering of the flowers are coated with white or pink 

 glandular hairs ; bract linear and acute ; bractlets ovate, acute or 

 laciniate ; calyx four-lobed ; lobes imbricate, linear, hairy ; styles 

 two ; stigmas two, fringed, spreading, bright red, half an inch long. 

 Ovary inferior, ovule solitary. 



Fruit. Nut closed in an indehiscent involucre, making a kind of 

 dry drupe. Three or five often ripen on one branch. Cylindrical, 

 obscurely two to four-ridged, ovate-oblong, pointed, coated with 

 rusty clammy hairs, one-half to two and one-half inches long. Nut 

 is brown, ovate, acute at apex, deeply sculptured and rough with 

 ragged ridges, two-celled at base. Kernel sweet and pleasant but 

 very oily and soon becomes rancid. Cotyledons ovate-oblong. 



The Butternut when young much resembles the Black Wal- 

 nut. It is, perhaps, more generally distributed. The form of 

 the fruit differs greatly from that of the Black Walnut, being 

 oblong, oval, and narrowed to a point at the end. The husk 

 is covered with a sticky gum and when green is used domes- 

 tically to dye a dull yellow. The surface of the nut is much 

 rougher than that of any other of the walnut genus. The 

 bark is lighter gray than that of the Black Walnut, and the 

 ridges are very much broader. The leaves are very similar 

 in general appearance, but the petiole of the Butternut leaf 

 is covered with clammy hairs -as are the young branchlets. 



HICKORY 

 fficoria. Cdrya. 



The name Carya was applied by the Greeks to the common walnut, in honor 

 of Carya, daughter of Dion, King of Laconia, who was changed by Bacchus into' 

 that tree. Diana had the surname of Caryata from the town of Carya in La- 

 conia where her rites were always celebrated in the open air under the shade of 

 a walnut tree. Plutarch says the name of Carya was applied to the walnut tree 



from the effect of the smell of the leaves on the head. 



LOUDON. 



Hickory is derived from the Indian name of the liquor obtained by pound- 

 ing the kernels. These the Indians beat into pieces with stones and putting them, 



276 , , 



