JUGLANDACEv^.. 



241 



Europe and America for a dessert nut. A tal)lc oil is expressed from it ; 

 aud ill a green state it makes an excellent pickle. It is also used to flavor 

 sauces, aud is an importaut article in the celebrated walnut sauce. The wood 

 takes a good polish, has a browu color, is riclily veined, and is highly prized by 

 cabinet makers, rivalling mahogany. The plain kind is used for gunstocks. 

 The root is guarled, aud wlieu sawed into thin slices makes valuable 

 veneering. 



HICORIA, Raf . (Hickory Nut.) Flowers uni.sexual ; both stamiiiate 

 and pistillate flowers and leaf developed from the same bud; the pis- 

 tillate flowers terminal, few in number ; bract small or none ; bract- 

 lets none ; staminate flowers in pendulous catkins in the axils of the 

 lower leaves; 3 on a peduncle, theii- perianth irregularly 2-:3-lobed ; 

 stamens 3 to 10 ; pistillate flowers shortly spicate, few, with a minute 

 bract or none ; perianth enfolding and adhering to the ovary, with a 

 free 4-parted tip ; stigma sessile upon the ovary, 2-4-lobed. Husk or 

 outer shell of fruit fleshy, 4-valved nut, somewhat 4-sided, smooth or 

 slightly wrinkled. Flowers greenish. 



1. H. ovata, Mill., Britton. (Carya Alba, Nutt.) (Shell-bark. Hickory 

 nut. White Walnut.) Stem from 40 to 60 feet high, and from 1 to 2 feet iu 

 diameter, rather regularly branched, form- 

 ing a symmetrical head. Bark gray, and 

 falling in strips. Leaves composed of two 

 pairs of leaflets aud a terminal one, lateral 

 ones sessile, terminal one petioled, all ob- 

 lanceolate, tlie lower pair smaller, subacu- 

 minate, sharply serrulate, downy beneath. 

 Fruit flattish, globose, with four grooves 

 extending along the length of the husk, 

 which, when ripe, separate into four sections, 

 freeing itself from the nut, which is marked by four seams or ridges exteud- 

 ing lengthwise ; shell thin ; kernel delicate. Ripens in November ; flowers in 

 April and May. 



2. H. sulcata, Britton. (Carya sulcata, Nutt.) (Thick Shell-bark.) This 

 species differs from the last in* the size of the fruit, which is much larger 

 than tliat of the C. alba, and the leaf has from 3 to 4 pairs, and the nut has 

 an acuminate tip ; in other respects it is well described in C ovata. A larger 

 tree than C. alba. 



G^0(7rfl/)/H/. — The geographical range of these last species is the northern 

 and middle States, fn^n the Atlantic to the Mississippi Kiver, aud it bears 

 well in corresjionding latitudes in Europe. 



Efijmoloq,/. — The generic name, hicoria, is of unknown origin, supposed to 

 be an aboriginal name of the tree or its fruit, proltably tlie latter. The old 

 generic name, cart/a, is from the Greek word Koipvov, the walnut tree, said to 

 have been given in honor of Carya, daughter of Dion, king of Laconia, who, 

 according to the Greek myth, was changed by Bacchus into that tree. The 

 specific name, ovata, is from the Latin ovum, an egg. referring to the shape of 

 a plane of tlie fruit parallel to tlie axis of growth. Sulcata, from the Latin 

 sulcus, a furrow, derives its name from markings (ui the fruit. 

 Pk. El. — 17 



HicoRiA OVATA (Hickory Nut). 



