176 



THE NUT CULTURIST. 



had eyer been found, and this was of large si^e, six and 

 a half feet in circumference, and about fifty feet high, 

 the bark somewhat like that of the hickory but nearer 

 the pecan. Mr. Nussbaumer sent me specimens of tlje 

 green nuts with leaves and twigs, from the original tree. 

 The nuts, however, of that season (1884:), were badly 

 infested with the "hickory-shuck worm^ (^Orapholitha 

 caryana, Fitch), and these had so ruined the shucks, 

 and even eaten into the shells of the nuts, that few of 

 the specimens received were fully developed. But from 

 two nuts I had a sketch made while they were fresh and 

 of natural size, as shown in Pig. 



66, the dark, irregular marks on 

 the husks showing where the 

 shuck worm had attacked them. 

 One of these nuts is shown in Pig. 



67, also natural size. I planted 

 one of the nuts, from which I now 

 have a tree about ten feet high, 

 but although ten years old it has 

 not fruited, and, so far as I can 

 judge from its appearance, is a 

 pure Western shellbark, with no 

 indication of hybridity; but of 

 course this does not prove that 



NussBAUMER's HYBRID, thc Original or parent tree is not 

 a hybrid, as claimed by Mr. Nussbaumer, Judge Miller, 

 and, if I am rightly informed. Prof. T. J. Burrill, of 

 the University of Illinois. 



However widely opinions may difEer in regard to 

 the origin of this variety, it is certainly a most remark- 

 able nut, and I regret that the exact location of the 

 original tree has entirely escaped my most careful seek- 

 ing ; and of late years I have been unable to learn any- 

 thing of Mr. Nussbaumer, further than that he had 

 moved from Mascoutah to Okawville, 111., the last letter 



