Botanical Classification and Varieties of the Pecan 219 



valved husk; seed solitary, 2-lobed from the apex nearly to 

 the middle ; cotyledons fleshy and oily, 2-lobed ; radicle short, 

 superior, filling the apex of the nut. 



The characteristic marks of the genus Hicoria (or Carya, 

 if one prefers that name) in contrast with those of Juglans 

 are long slender long-stalked three-branched catkins, instead 

 of single sessile or short-stalked catkins; husk of the fruit 

 dehiscent by 4 valves rather than indehiscent as in Juglans; 

 nuts not sculptured, and the pith of the branches solid instead 

 of being in plates or layers. The staminate flowers of the 

 hickories have the calyx 2- or rarely 3-lobed with from 3 to 

 10 stamens ; the pistillate flowers, sessile, in 2- to 10-flowered 

 spikes, with calyx 4-lobed, and short stout stigmas (see 

 Fig. 33). 



The pecan, Hicoria Pecan, is the largest of all the hickories 

 and one of the largest trees of the forest. The trunk, like 

 that of the shagbark hickory, Hicoria ovata and H. laciniosa, 

 is very high, often measuring more than 50 feet and occasion- 

 ally 80 or 90 feet to the first limb. Its bark is thick, light 

 brown tinged with red, and deeply and irregularly divided 

 into narrow forked ridges broken on the surface into thick 

 appressed scales. The pecan differs from the other hickories 

 in the fact that its catkins are produced from buds in pairs — 

 one on either side of a lateral leaf -bud — of the previous sea- 

 son's growth; while the other hickories produce catkins from 

 near the base of the terminal bud, or on the new growth 

 near its base. The fruit of the pecan is in clusters of 2 to 8, 

 pointed, 4-ridged and angled, from 1 inch to 2i/2 inches long 

 and from % to 1 inch broad, dark brown with a thin, hard, 

 and brittle husk splitting at maturity nearly to the base and 

 often persistent on the branch during the winter after the 



