History of Pecan-Growing 



13 



originated in the region around southern Illinois, where the 

 nuts were found in quantities by the explorers and fur trad- 

 ers who called them the Illinois nuts from the name of the 

 Indian tribes in that region. From this point, the theory is 

 that the trees could easily have been distributed southward 

 along the Mississippi Valley by the natural flow of the water. 

 Since it is well known, however, that the Juglandaceee, of 

 which family of plants the pecan is a member, appeared on 

 this continent in the cretaceous period, it is very probable that 

 the pecan originated at that time. An examination of a geo- 

 logical map of that period shows the shore line of the Gulf 

 of Mexico extending as far north as the mouth of the Ohio 

 River, thence dipping in a crescent shape to the northwest of 

 Texas, thus putting the northern parts of both the Mississippi 

 and the Pecos valleys on the same Gulf shore line. It would, 

 therefore, have been easy for the pecan to be carried from 

 one part of the coast to the other by the wash of the waves. 

 It is reasonable to 

 suppose that, as 

 the shores of the 

 Gulf receded, the 

 pecan followed and 

 remained where it 

 found congenial 

 surroundings. (See 

 Fig. 20 



According to 

 Bancroft, DeSoto, 

 the discoverer of 



the Mississippi, also Figure 2.— A map of North America in cre- 



taceous times. The shaded areas show parts 

 found the pecan, of North America submerged at that time. 



