62 CHINESE ECONOMIC TREES 



3-17 in number. Flowers monoecious, appearing with the leaves. 

 Staminate catkins pendulous, axillary, clustered, stalked or sessile, many 

 flowered; each flower subtended by a 3-lobed bract; calyx, 3-6 lobed; 

 stamens 3-10. Pistillate flowers on new growth of the season, 2-10, 

 clustered in a spike; calyx 1 lobed; style 2; ovary solitary, 1 celled, 1 

 ovuled, enclosed in a cup-shaped involucre composed of the union of a 

 bract and 2 bracteoles. Fruit a nut inclosed in a thick husk, more or 

 le-s dehiscent into 4 valves; nut hard and bony; 2 celled on top, 4 celled 

 at the base. Seeds solitary 2 lobed and more or less wrinkled or corrugated, 

 filling the cavity of the nut, exalbuminous. Cotyledons remain inclosed 

 in the nut at germination. 



About 11 species all N. American except 1 recently discovered in 

 China. Carya is a synonym for the genus. Hicoria is the older name. 

 This is the hickory of commerce. x 



Hicoria cathayensis (Sargent) Chun 

 (Carya cathayensis Sargent.) 



Tree to 29 m. tall. Leaves, 5-7 foliate, 20-30 cm. long. Leaflets 

 tubsessile, lanceolate to obovate-lanceolate, acuminate at the base, serrate, 

 10-14 cm. long, 3.5-5 cm. wide, green above, rusty brown below. Fruit 

 obovoid, 4 ridged at the suture of the husk; exocarp 2.5-3 mm. thick. 

 Nuts ovoid to >)val, base rounded, apex with a sharp, short tip, obscurely 

 angled, 2-2.5 cm. long, 1.5-2 cm. in diameter. Cotyledons lobed almost 

 to the apex. 



Chekiang and Kweichow r . 



The nuts are sold in the markets ns sweetmeats. They are also 

 expressed for oil used in fancy pastries. The wood is tough and strong, 

 used for tool handles. It is not improbable that other species occur in 

 China. 



PTEROCARYA. 



Trees with pith in horizontal plates or lamella3. Winter buds scaly 

 or naked, usually stalked. Leaves deciduous, alternate, pinnately com- 

 pound, without stipules; leaflets subsessile, serrate. Flowers monoecious, 

 numerous in pendulous catkins, appearing with the leaves. Staminate 

 flowers consist of 1-4 sepals and 6-18 stamens in several series, on the 

 axis cf o connate bracts. Pistillate catkins solitary, terminal, the flower 

 subtended by a bract and 2 bracteoles, the ovary enclosed in a 4-toothed 



