[ S8 ] 
NUTMEG HICKORY. 
JuGLANS MYRISTICÆFORMIS. 1 , folUs qilinîs, foHoHs ovato-acumhiatis, scrratis, 
glabris: fructu ovato, scabriuscido ; mice minima, durissimâ. 
Càrya myristicæformis, Nutt. 
No specific denomination has hitherto been given to this species by the 
inhabitants of the Middle States, to which it is peculiar : that of Nutmeg 
Hickory, which I have formed, appears sufficiently appropriate, from the 
resemblance of its nuts to a nutmeg. 
I have not myself found this tree in the forests, and hence I conclude 
that it is not common. It is true I had not, at the period of my residence 
in that part of the United States, conceived the design of the present work, 
and did not devote myself entirely to the researches, which have since given 
birth to it. I am acquainted with the Nutmeg Hickory only by a branch 
and a handful of nuts, given me at Charleston in the fall of 1802, by the 
gardener of Mr. H. Izard, which he had gathered in a swamp on his mas- 
ter’s plantation of the Elms, in the parish of Goose Creek. From this 
specimen alone I have included the tree among the Hickories. 
The leaves, which are composed of 4 or 6 leaflets with an odd one, are 
symetrically arranged. I remarked also, that the shoots of the preceding 
year were flexible and coriaceous. 
The nuts are very small, smooth, and of a brown color marked with lines 
of white ; the husk is thin and somewhat rough on the surface. The shell 
is so thick, that it constitutes two thirds of the volume of the nut, which, 
consequently, is extremely hard, and has a minute kernel. The fruit is 
inferior even to the Pignut. 
I suspect that the Nutmeg Hickory is more common in Lower Louis- 
iana it belongs to inquirers who engage in researches analogous to those 
which I have pursued in the Atlantic and Western Slates, to study this 
tree more fully than I have been able to do, and to complete the imperfect 
description which I have given of it. 
« 
PLATE XXXIX. • 
^ branch and nuis with their husks. Fig. 1, nut without its husk. 
* In the interesting work of Mr. W. Darby on Louisiana, published at Philadelphia in 1817, 
tlic Nutmeg Hickory is said to abound on the waters of Red river in the Mississippi Territory. 
F. A. M. 
