FOREST TREES. 65 
Most of the Hickory nuts of commerce are the fruit 
of this species. The large trees are remarkable for 
the exfoliation of the outer bark, which is divided 
into long narrow plates, adhering by the middle or 
one end. No species of Hickory better merits culti- 
vation than this. When young, it is a graceful orna- 
mental tree, and were it of foreign origin it would be 
cultivated for its beauty. The fruit varies considera- 
bly in quantity and size, and may, undoubtedly, be 
improved by cultivation. If planted with a view to 
the production of fruit, only the best varieties should 
be selected. It was long ago asserted as a fact, that 
Hickory trees which had been transplanted were best 
for the production of fruit, although inferior for tim- 
ber. I have never seen this statement verified by 
trial, but it appears quite probable. Michaux, in the 
North American Sylva, mentions a variety of the 
Shellbark Hickory, produced on a farm at Seacocus 
near Snake Hill, in New Jersey, with nuts nearly 
twice as large as any that he had seen elsewhere; and 
remarked that, perhaps, a century of cultivation 
-would not advance the species generally to an equal 
degree of perfection. It is said that the fruit of the 
European Walnut (Juglans regia), in its uncultivated 
. State, is inferior, both in size and quality, to that of 
the Shellbark Hickory. 
2. Carya sulcata—Thick Shellbark Hickory. 
Leaflets, seven or nine; obovate lanceolate; sharply 
.. serrate; downy underneath; fruit, oval; four-ribbed 
above the middle, with intervening furrows; nut, 
6* 
