MOXOECIA POLYANDRIA 545 



White Carta. Vulgo — Shell-bark Hickory. 



Stem 60 to SO feet high, and IS inches to 2 feet or more in diameter, with the 

 bark exfoliating in long narrow scales, or plates, which generally adhere in the 

 middle, while the ends arc detached and elevated, making the surface very rough 

 and shaggy. Leaflets mostly in 2 pairs, with a terminal odd one, 3 or 4 to 6 or 8 

 inches long, and an inch and half to 2, or 2 and a half inches wide (the terminal 

 one usually largest, and the lower pair much smaller), varying from ovate-lance- 

 olate, to oblong- andobovatc-lanceolate, acuminate, finely serrate, with the serra- 

 tures often mucronate, smoothish above, softly pubescent beneath, the lateral 

 ones sessile, the terminal one on a short petiole ; common petioles pubescent, 4 

 to 6 inches long, more than half their length below the lower pair of leaflets. 

 Atnetits at the base of the young growth, 2 or 3 to 4 or 5 inches long, 3-parted or 

 ternate, on a common peduncle, smoothish, pendulous, with a linear-lanceolate 

 bract at the base of each lateral anient ; scales irifid, the lateral segments obtuse, 

 the middle one elongated, lance-linear, acuminate ; stamens mostly 4, the anthers 

 somewhat hairy. Pistillate flowers terminal, mostly 2 or 3 together, sessile on a 

 common peduncle ; perianth superior, oradnate to the ovary, 4-clefi, becoming, in 

 the fruit, the4-valved pericarp. Fruit depressed-globose, somewhat umbilicate 

 at the ends, and depressed or sulcate along the sutures of the pericarp ; pericarp 

 thick, opening at maturity into 4 distinct valves, or pieces ; nut about an inch 

 long, sub orbicular, or oval, somewhat compressed and angular, white, the shell 

 thin, and the kernel or nucleus large. 



Bab. Rich low lands ; along streams, <fcc. frequent. Fl. May. FY. Octo. 



Obs. The nuts of this tree are well known, and highly esteemed. I think we 

 have some varieties which may be referred to this species ; and among them, 

 perhaps, the one which I gave in my Catalogue, as C. sulcata,— a species which 

 fflchaux says is rare, east of the Alleghanies ;— though he adds, that it grows on 

 the Schuylkill, thirty or forty miles above Philadelphia. The whole genus is 

 believed to be peculiar to this Continent. 



2. C. MicRocAiiPA, JYutt. Leaflets 5 to 7, oblong-lanceolate, conspic- 

 uously acuminate, serrate, smooth, glandular beneath ; aments smooth ; 

 fruit roundish-ovoid ; pericarp thin ; nut slightly quadrangular. Nuttl 

 Gen. 2. p. 221. 



Juglans compressa, var. microcarpa. MuhL Catal. p. 88, Bart. 

 Phil. 2. p. 179. 



Small-fruited Carta. 

 SfemGOto 80 feet high, and 18 inches to 2 feet in diameter, with an even bark. 

 Leaflets in 2 (or not unfrequently 3) pairs, with a terminal odd one, 4 to 8 or 9 

 inches long, and 2 to 3 inches wide, oblong-lanceolate (the lower pair smaller and 

 ovate-lanceolate), conspicuously acuminate, serrate, smooth on both sides, except 

 a slight villose tuft in the axils of the nerves beneath, the under surface sprinkled 

 with minute dark-purple particles,— the lateral leaflets subsessile and rather 

 obtuse at base, the terminal one tapering and acute at base, on a short petiole ; 

 common petioles 3 to 6 inches long, smooth. Aments ternate, long, slender, smooth ; 

 icales trifid, the lateral segments ovate, the middle one linear. Pistillate flowers 

 terminal, 2 or 3 together, sessile on a common peduncle ; segments of the perianth 

 lance-ovate, conspicuous. Fruit roundish-ovoid, about 3 fourths of an inch in 

 diameter ; pericarp thin, with the sutures prominent ; nut somewhat 4-angled, th* 

 ihtUihln. 



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