IV. 2. THE HICKORY. 187 
parts of this State, and it has been successfully cultivated in 
many others. Its growth from the seed is certain and rapid. 
Its rich, oily fruit, when carefully dried, is nearly equal to that 
of the shagbark hickory. From the kernel a valuable and 
abundant oil may be expressed, superior to most others for use 
in cookery and for lamps. Bread has also been made from the 
kernels. ‘The spongy husk of the nuts 1s used as a dye-stuff. 
It thus unites almost all the qualities desirable in a tree,— 
beauty, gracefulness, and richness of foliage, in every period of 
its growth; bark and husks which may be employed in an 
important art; fruit valuable as food; wood unsurpassed in 
durability for use, or in elegance for ornament. 
IV. 2. THE HICKORY. CARYA. Nuttall. 
The hickories are valuable timber trees, with large compound 
leaves, having from five to fifteen, but usually not more than 
eleven leaflets. ‘The sterile flowers are in compound catkins, each 
principal catkin having two opposite branches; the stamens from 
four to eight in each flower. The fertile flowers are solitary, or 
in small groups, at the end of the branches. 'The fruit is a large 
roundish nut, the husk of which opens partially or wholly, of 
itself, by four seams. 
The hickory is peculiar to America. The nearest approach 
to it on the Eastern Continent, is in the European walnut. In 
many respects, it is amongst the most valuable of our trees. It 
is always a Statcly and elegant tree; and the several species, 
and individuals in the same species, exhibit so great a variety 
of appearance and foliage, that they have almost the interest of 
a forest. Few trees contribute so much to the beauty of the 
woodsin autumn. ‘The colors of all at that season are rich, and 
each species hasitsown. ‘The smoothness, closeness, and hard- 
ness of the grain of the wood, give it great value in the arts, and 
for fuel it holds unquestionably the first place. The fruit of some 
of the species, even in the unimproved condition of its forest 
state, vies with the best of foreign nuts, and is destined, doubt- 
less, to be greatly improved by the resources of cultivation. 
