WALNUT FAMILY 
shells and all, into mortars, mingling water with them, with long wooden pestells 
pound them so long together untill they make a kind of mylke, or oylie liquor, 
which they call poweohicora. 
—Historie of Travaile into Virginia Britannia. 
The Hickories, of which there are nine species on this con- 
tinent, are strictly American trees, no representatives of the 
Staminate Aments of 
Shellbark Hickory, 
Hicoria ovata ; 4! 
to 5/ long. 
genus having been found elsewhere. They 
are closely allied to the walnuts; the chief 
botanic distinction between them lies in the 
husk which in the Hickories separates into 
four pieces and discharges the nut, instead of 
adhering in an unbroken coat upon it as is 
the case with the Black Walnut and the But- 
ternut. 
All the Hickories have alternate, exstipu- 
late, compound leaves of five, seven, nine or 
eleven leaflets, and although the leaves vary 
considerably they have a common typical 
form well expressed by fcoria ovata, the 
Shellbark. All have stout perpendicular tap- 
roots and thick fibrous rootlets as well. Like 
the oaks they take strong hold of the earth. 
The noticeable quality of the wood is its 
strength and elasticity as well as its fuel 
value, but it decays when subjected to alter- 
nations of wet and dry 
The flowers are moneecious and apetalous, 
appearing after the leaves are well grown. 
The staminate flowers appear in aments 
which are borne in threes on a common 
peduncle which is produced either from the 
terminal bud or from the lateral buds in the 
axils of last year’s leaves. The staminate 
flowers consist of a two, sometimes three- 
lobed calyx, subtended by an elongated bract 
which is free nearly to the base, usually much longer than 
the ovate, rounded calyx-lobes. The corolla is wanting. 
278 
