188 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
With such claims, it has a right to demand more attention than 
it has yet received. 
From the great resemblance which several of the species have 
to each other, in shape, and in the size, form, and number 
of the leaflets, they are liable to be confounded, and distinct 
species are confounded almost universally. Except when in 
fruit, itis very difficult to distinguish them, and even then it is 
necessary for the inexperienced observer to have recourse to the 
taste, so great and numerous are the diversities in their size, 
shape, andexternalappearance. The hickories are stately trees. 
All of them have, more than any other native deciduous tree, a 
tendency, even when growing by themselves, on the open plain, 
to rise to a great height, and form a tall cylindrical head, not 
wide, but holding a breadth of twenty or thirty feet, with only 
such breaks and irregularities as preserve it from sameness, to 
the very top. This is a great beauty, and serves to give a 
marked character to the tree when seen at a distance, left, as it 
often is by our farmers, an ornament and shade to the pas- 
ture, or standing by itself on the edge of a wood, or along en- 
closures. This great beauty of the tree would recommend it 
for transplantation to the sides of commons and public roads, if 
it were not for the great difficulty with which it is removed, 
after it has attained any considerable height. ‘The principal 
root, except, perhaps, in the case of the bitternut hickory, is a 
very long and perpendicular taproot, with few fibres or side roots. 
It is therefore liable to be so much injured in transplanting, from 
the loss of the extremity, that few trees survive the operation. 
To be successfully propagated, it must therefore be raised from 
the seed, sown where the tree is finally toremain. In our bleak 
and windy climate, few trees will grow without shelter in their 
earlier years. ‘The hickories should be raised in large masses, 
of several acres at least. And the nuts, previously made to 
germinate in boxes, filled with earth, and kept moist in the cel- 
lar,* snould be sown so plentifully, as to allow for casualties, 
such as the depredations of squirrels and other small animals, 
* Michaux, N. A. Sylva, I, p. 205. He adds, “The success of this sumple 
method 1s certain.’’ 
