236 



The Hickories 



for a few light-colored warts, dark brown or gray. The terminal bud is ovoid, 

 blunt, about 15 mm. long, its scales 6 to 8, imbricated, the outer reddish brown and 



leathery, the inner hairy and continue to grow 

 when the leaf expands, becoming 2.5 to 3.5 cm. in 

 length. The leaves are 2 to 3 dm. long; leaf- 

 stalk stout and channeled; leaflets 5 to 7, oval, ob- 

 long or ovate, 6 to 14 cm. long, narrowed or rounded 

 at the imequal, sessile base, sharp or taper- 

 pointed, coarsely but shallowly toothed on the 

 margin; thick and firm at maturity, light green 

 and shining above; the upper pairs are much 

 the largest; the terminal one is broadest above 

 the middle, narrowly tapering at the short-stalked 

 base. The staminate catkins are in stalked clus- 

 ters of 3, smooth or nearly so, the bract of the 

 perianth slightly if any longer than the rounded 

 lateral lobes, which are fringed with hairs. The 

 Fig. 193. -SmaU-fruited Hickory. pigtiUate flowers are angular and covered with 

 scurfy hairs. The fruit is subglobose, 2 to 2.5 cm. in d'am<^t.er, light brown, 

 densely scaly and slightly wiuged; husk thin, tardily spUttin^ dui. ua t way to the 

 base; nut buff-colored, slightly flattened, sharp-pointed, sometimes *^dghtly angu- 

 lar; shell rather thin; seeds small and sweet. 



Its wood is similar to that of the Shellbark hickory, and makes excellent fuel. 



12. NORTHERN HICKORY — Hicoria borealis Ashe 



A small tree of drjdsh hillsides, growing 

 with the Small-fruited hickory in the vicinity 

 of Detroit, Michigan, and probably in adjacent 

 Ontario. 



The trunk and branches much resemble 

 the Small-fruited hickory. The bark is deeply 

 furrowed into narrow ridges, which become 

 loose and shaggy with age. The twigs are 

 slender, smooth, and bright brownish red; the 

 terminal bud is ovoid-lanceolate, covered by 

 8 to 10 imbricated scales, the inner ones 

 being lighter colored and silky. The leaves 

 are 2 to 2.5 dm. long; the leaf-stalk is stout, 

 grooved, thickened at the base, and slightly 

 hairy; leaflets 5, sometimes but 3, lanceolate, 9 

 to 15 cm. long, or the lowest somewhat smaller, 

 slightly curved, tapering on one side, rounded 



Fig. 194. — Northern Hickory. 



