THE WALNUTS AND HICKORIES 



ernut to improve its fruit would be an interesting 

 one, and certainly both the nuts of the mock- 

 ernut and shagbark deserve as much attention 

 as the English walnut. 



Both the specific names, — the Latin alba, 

 and the English white-heart — refer to the color 

 of the wood. This tree is found in New Eng- 

 land and also in the West and South. 



Bitternut ""^ large tree, with a light, gran- 



Hickory ile-gray hark. Slender twigs, the 



Carya cordiformis j ' 7 j j 



recent snoots orange-green and 

 dotted. Alternate leaf-scars. Buds long, curved, 

 flattened, and pointed, the lateral ones shorter, 

 and more round than the terminal buds; all 

 are orange-yellow in color, — the distinguishing 

 characteristic of the tree. The nuts are bitter. 



If the characteristic of the bitternut's flat- 

 tened, orange buds is remembered, this tree can 

 be distinguished not only in winter, but at 

 every other season of the year. The hickories 

 are constantly confused, and the fact that they 

 often hybridize complicates matters still more. 

 Such an unfailing means of identification as 

 these yellow buds is, therefore, a great help, and 

 as there are always one or two lateral buds ly- 

 ing dormant along the stem, after the buds have 

 opened in the spring, and as new buds are 

 formed by the middle of the summer, there is 



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