TREES AND SHRUBS. 



CAEYA BEOWNII, Saeg. 



(Carya cordiformis X pecan.) 

 The Mayfield Nut. 



Carya Brownii, n. hyb. 



Leaves from 2.5 to 3 decimetres long, with stout petioles tomentose early in the season, becom- 

 ing nearly glabrous ; leaflets eleven or rarely nine, acuminate, coarsely serrate with incurved teeth, 

 the terminal leaflet acuminate and symmetrical at the base, and raised on a slender petiolule often 

 from 5 to 8 millimetres in length, the lateral falcate, unsymmetrical at the base, the upper side 

 rounded, the lower nearly straight, and subsessile or short-pedunculate ; when they unfold covered 

 above by small pale glands and villose on the midribs, and villose below especially on the midribs 

 and veins, and at maturity yellow-green, lustrous and glabrous on the upper surface, pale yellow- 

 green and glabrous on the lower surface with the exception of a few hairs on the midribs and in 

 the axils of the veins, from 9 to 13 centimetres long and from 2 to 4 centimetres wide. Staminate 

 flowers sessile, in villose aments from 8 to 10 centimetres long, from buds formed the previous 

 year, on peduncles from 6 to 7 millimetres in length ; calyx pubescent, about half as long as the 

 bract. Pistillate flowers slightly angled, scurfy-pubescent, in from two- to four-flowered spikes. 

 Fruit broadly ovate, acute at the apex, rounded at the broad base, narrow-winged to below the 

 middle or nearly to the bottom, dark reddish brown and more or less thickly covered with yellow 

 scurfy pubescence, from 3.5 to 4 centimetres long and from 2 to 2.2 centimetres wide, the valves 

 thin and splitting freely; nut oblong to slightly obovate, rounded at the base, broad and 

 rounded and abruptly narrowed and acute at the apex, compressed, slightly angled at the apex only, 

 light-colored, from 3 to 3.5 centimetres long, from 2 to 2.2 centimetres wide, with a thin shell and 

 bitter seed. 



A tree, from 10 to 15 metres high, with a trunk from 3 to 3.5 decimetres in diameter, covered 

 with close pale bark, and stout branchlets thickly covered when they first appear with hoary tomen- 

 tum, becoming in their first winter light reddish brown, puberulous and covered with small pale 

 lenticels. Winter-buds only slightly compressed, covered with yellow scurfy pubescence, the termi- 

 nal from 1 to 1.2 centimetres long and about twice as large as the lateral buds. Flowers the 

 beginning of May. Fruit ripens in October. 



A single tree, growing near a small grove of Carya pecan on the bottom-lands of the Arkansas River two miles be- 

 low Van Buren, Crawford County, Arkansas, and near the River road, G. M. Brown (No. 7), April, May, June and 

 October, 1909. This tree, which is evidently a hybrid between the Pecan and the Bitternut, resembles the Pecan in 

 habit and in the color and general appearance of the foliage. The leaves remain on the branches after all those of the 

 Pecans in the region have fallen, and in their fewer leaflets approach those of the Bitternut. The aments of the stam- 

 inate flowers are produced from branches of the previous year, as is usually the case with the Pecan, but they are pe- 

 dunculate like those of the Bitternut. The fruit is ovate and rounded at the base, much broader in proportion to 

 its length than that of the Pecan, and much longer than the subglobose or short-oblong fruits of the Bitternut. It has 

 the glandular scurfy pubescence of the Bitternut without the articulate hairs found on the fruit of the Pecan. The husk 

 of the Pecan opens and discharges the nuts, remaining on the branches during the winter. From this hybrid about 

 half of the nuts are discharged in this way. The nut is compressed, not cylindrical like that of the Pecan, light-colored 

 although not as light-colored as that of the Bitternut. 



I take much pleasure in associating with this interesting tree the name of Mr. George M. Brown, engineer of the muni- 

 cipal waterworks of Van Buren, who has made many observations on the trees of western Arkansas. The name May- 

 field was given to it by Mr. Brown as the nut was first shown to him by Joseph Mayfield of Van Buren. 



