( 104) 



pound, being composed of from 5 to 9 hairy leaflets, all at- 

 tached to a common hairy leaf-stalk. The leaflets are ob- 

 long or lance-shaped, sharp-pointed at the tip, and wedge- 

 shaped at the base. They are practically equilateral. In 

 May or June the catkin-like flowers appear, followed in the 

 fall by the well-known edible mocker-nut. The splitting of 

 the husk of the mocker-nut serves to distinguish it from the 

 pignut, in which the husk of the nut does not split. 



The tree grows naturally from Maine to Florida, Ne- 

 braska and Texas, and it was at one time common on Man- 

 hattan Island. The hard, strong wood is indiscriminately 

 classed with the other hickories by lumbermen. 



Bitter-Nut Hicoria cordiformis 



Because of its inequilateral and curved leaflets, the bitter- 

 nut may be easily distinguished from the preceding, with 

 which, in other respects, it might be confused. It is a tall, 

 quickly growing hickory, quite commonly distributed from 

 Massachusetts to Georgia and westward; and is found in fair 

 abundance along the Hudson Valley. The wood is largely 

 used for fuel, and also for making implement handles and 

 hooks. Its thin-shelled nut is very astringent. 



Shagbark Hickory Hicoria ovata 



In the Hudson Valley the shagbark, or shellbark as it is 

 sometimes called, is one of the two hickories in which 

 the bark splits off in long plates. The whole trunk is covered 

 with the pieces of bark clinging at their upper edges and 

 free from the trunk at the lower, thus giving the trunk its 

 strikingly shaggy appearance. 



It rarely reaches a height of 100 feet, and usually does not 

 have a trunk diameter of more than 2 to 3 feet. 



There are usually only 5 leaflets in this kind of hickory, 

 but sometimes 7 leaflets may be found. The leaflets are 

 almost equilateral, and wedge-shaped at the base. The 

 catkin-like flower clusters come out in May followed by the 

 fruits in the fall. The nut, which is the common hickory 



