IV. 2. THE HICKORY. 191 
3. The Pignut, with three, five, or seven narrow leaflets, 
small, thin-shelled fruit, and a pretty hard nut; and 
4. The Bitternut, with seven, nine, or eleven small, narrow, 
serrated leaves, small fruit, with long prominent seams, bitter 
and thin-shelled nut, and very yellow buds. 
Sp. 1. SwerrparkK Hickory. Carya alba. A. Michaux. 
Leaf, fruit, and female ament figured in Michaux, Sylva, I, Plate 36, and in 
Plate 12 of this volume. 
This tree is almost every where in Massachusetts known by 
the descriptive name of the shagbark, or shellbark, a name 
likely to be retained. It is the only one of the hickories which 
is not constantly confounded with some other. Jt may be read- 
ily distinguished by the shaggy bark of its trunk, the excellence 
of its globular fruit, its leaves, which are large and have five 
leaflets, and by its ovate, half-covered buds. 
The shellbark hickory is found in the county of York, in 
Maine, twenty-five miles east of Portsmouth, N. H. This is 
the most northerly point at which I have observed it, and there 
it is rare, and a small tree, but matures fruit of a fine quality. 
It occurs thence southward through the Middle and Southern 
States, as far as Carolina, and is found in the Western States. 
It flourishes in nearly every part of Massachusetts, except 
the southeastern counties. In the maritime districts, and in 
sandy soils, itisrarely found. Jt is most abundant in the neigh- 
borhood of Boston, and in Middlesex, Essex, and Worcester 
counties. 
It grows best in a rich, moist soil, and produces its fruit most 
abundantly when growing by itself on the border of cultivated 
land, or on the cdge of a forest. In such situations, a single tree 
sometimes bears several bushels of nuts. 
The shellbark is a tall and stately tree, rising sometimes to 
the height of seventy or eighty feet, witha diameter seldom ex- 
ceeding two feet. ‘The branches are irregular and scattered, 
often numerous, but not large, and where the tree is left stand- 
ing, after the other trees of the forest in which it had attained 
its height, have been felled, it has a long and shapely, cylindri- 
