Leaves oblong-obovate to oblanceolate, entire or minutely glandular dentate, acute or acuminate, or rounded and short-pointed, or rounded at apex, gradually narrowed and cuneate at base, when they unfold pubescent or tomentose on the upper surface, and coated on the lower with lustrous white silky pubescence or tomentum persistent during the season or sometimes deciduous from the leaves of vigorous young shoots, at maturity thin and firm, dark green, lustrous and glabrous above, with the exception of the pubescent midrib, 2′—5′ long, ¾′—1½′ wide, with conspicuous slender veins arcuate and united within the margins and prominent reticulate veinlets; petioles stout, pubescent, rarely ½′ long; stipules rarely produced, foliaceous, semilunar, acute or rounded at apex, glandular-dentate, coated below with hoary tomentum, often ½′ long, caducous. Flowers: aments cylindric, densely flowered, erect on short tomentose leafy branchlets, the staminate 1½′—2′ long and ½′ thick, the pistillate 2½′—3′ long, and ¼′ thick; scales yellow or tawny, the staminate oblong-obovate, rounded at the apex, covered with long white hairs, much longer than the more acute pubescent scales of the pistillate ament; stamen 1, with an elongated glabrous filament, or very rarely 2, with filaments united below the middle or nearly to the apex; ovary short-stalked, ovoid, conic, acute, pubescent and gradually narrowed into the elongated style, with entire or slightly emarginate short stigmas. Fruit ovoid, narrowed above, light red-brown, pubescent about ¼′ long.
A much-branched tree, occasionally 25°—30° high, with a short contorted often inclining trunk sometimes 1° in diameter, and slender brittle branchlets coated at first with hoary tomentum, pubescent and tomentose and dark red-brown or orange color during their first winter, becoming darker, pubescent or glabrous, and sometimes covered with a glaucous bloom in their second season; more often shrubby and 6°—15° tall. Winter-buds acute, nearly terete, light red-brown, pubescent or puberulous, about ¼′ long. Bark about ⅛′ thick and broken into irregular closely appressed dark brown scales tinged with red. Wood light, soft, close-grained, pale red, with thick nearly white sapwood.
Distribution. Banks of streams and in low moist ground; Cook Inlet and Kadiak Island, Alaska, southward in the neighborhood of the coast to Santa Barbara, California; on the Marble Creek of the Kaweah River at 6900° altitude (f. Ralphiana Jeps.)
VI. MYRICACEÆ.
Aromatic resinous trees and shrubs, with watery juice, terete branches, and small scaly buds. Leaves alternate, revolute in the bud, serrate, resinous-punctate, persistent in our species, in falling leaving elevated semiorbicular leaf-scars showing the ends of three nearly equidistant fibro-vascular bundles. Flowers unisexual, diœcious or monœcious, usually subtended by minute bractlets, in the axils of the deciduous scales of unisexual or androgynous simple oblong aments from buds in the axils of the leaves of the year, opening in early spring, the staminate below the pistillate in androgynous aments; staminate, perianth 0; stamens 4 or many, inserted on the thickened base of the scales of the ament; filaments slender, united at the base into a short stipe; anthers ovoid, erect, 2-celled, introrse, opening longitudinally; ovary rudimentary or 0; pistillate flowers single or in pairs; ovary sessile, 1-celled; styles short, divided into 2 elongated filiform stigmas stigmatic on the inner face; ovule solitary, erect from the base of the cell, orthotropous, the micropyle superior. Fruit a globose or ovoid dry drupe usually covered with waxy exudations; nut hard, thick-walled. Seed erect, with a thin coat, without albumen; embryo straight; cotyledons plano-convex, fleshy; radicle short, superior, turned away from the minute basal hilum.
The family consists of the genus Myrica L., of about thirty or forty species of small trees and shrubs, widely distributed through the temperate and warmer parts of both hemispheres. Of the seven North American species three are trees. Wax is obtained from the exudations of the fruit of several species. The bark is astringent, and sometimes used in medicine, in tanning, and as an aniline dye. Myrica rubra Sieb and Zacc., of southern Japan and China, is cultivated for its succulent aromatic red fruit.
The generic name is probably from the ancient name of some shrub, possibly the Tamarisk.
CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES.
- Flowers diœcious.
- Leaves oblanceolate, usually acute or rarely rounded at apex, mostly coarsely serrate above the middle, yellow-green, coated below with conspicuous orange-colored glands.
- 1. M. cerifera (A, C).
- Leaves usually broadly oblong-obovate, rounded or rarely acute at apex, entire, dark green and lustrous.
- 2. M. inodora (C).
- Flowers monœcious; leaves oblanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, sharply serrate, dark green and lustrous.
- 3. M. californica (G).
1. Myrica cerifera L. Wax Myrtle.
Leaves oblanceolate or rarely oblong-lanceolate, acute or rarely gradually narrowed and rounded at apex, cuneate at base, decurrent on short stout petioles, coarsely serrate above the middle or entire, yellow-green, covered above by minute dark glands and below by bright orange-colored glands, 1½′—4′ long and ¼′—½′ wide, with a slender pale midrib often puberulous below, and few obscure arcuate veins, fragrant with a balsamic resinous odor; gradually deciduous at the end of their first year. Flowers in small oblong aments, with ovate acute ciliate scales, those of the staminate plant ½′—¾′ long, about twice as long as those of the pistillate plant; stamens few, with oblong slightly obcordate anthers at first tinged with red, becoming yellow; ovary gradually narrowed into 2 slender spreading stigmas longer than its scale. Fruit in short spikes, ripening in September and October and persistent on the branches during the winter, irregularly deciduous in the spring and early summer, globose, about ⅛′ in diameter, slightly papillose, light green, coated with thick pale blue wax; seed pale, minute.
A tree, occasionally 40° high, with a tall trunk 8′—10′ in diameter, slender upright or slightly spreading branches forming a narrow round-topped head, and slender branchlets marked by small pale lenticels, coated at first with loose rufous tomentum and caducous orange-colored glands, bright red-brown or dark brown tinged with gray, usually lustrous and nearly glabrous during their first winter, finally becoming dark brown; generally smaller, frequently shrubby. Winter-buds oblong, acute, 1/16′—⅛′ long, with numerous ovate acute imbricated scales, the inner scales becoming nearly ½′ long, and often persistent until the young branch has completed its growth. Bark of the trunk ¼′ thick, compact, smooth, light gray. Wood light, soft and brittle, dark brown, with thin lighter-colored sapwood.
Distribution. In the neighborhood of the coast; Cape May, New Jersey, southern Delaware and Maryland to the keys of southern Florida, and through the Gulf states to the shores of Aranzas Pass, San Patricio County, Texas, ranging inland to the neighborhood of Natchez, Jackson County, Mississippi, the valley of the Red River (Natchitoches, Louisiana and Fulton, Arkansas), and to Cherokee County, Texas, and northward to the valley of the Washita River, Arkansas; on the Bermuda and Bahama Islands and on several of the Antilles; most abundant and of its largest size on the south Atlantic and Gulf coasts in sandy swamps and pond holes; the most common woody plant and forming great thickets on the Everglades east of Lake Okeechobee, Florida; in the sandy soil of Pine-barrens and on dry arid hills of the interior, often only a few inches in height, var. pumila Michx.
2. Myrica inodora W. Bartr. Wax Myrtle.
Leaves broadly oblong-obovate or rarely ovate, rounded or sometimes pointed and occasionally apiculate at apex, narrowed at base, decurrent on short stout petioles, entire or rarely obscurely toothed toward the apex, thick and coriaceous, glandular-punctate, dark green and very lustrous above, bright green below, 2′—4′ long, ¾′—1½′ wide, with a broad conspicuously glandular midrib slightly pubescent on the lower side, and few remote slender obscure primary veins forked and arcuate near the much-thickened and revolute margins; gradually deciduous from May until midsummer. Flowers in aments ¾′—1′ long, with ovate acute glandular scales; stamens numerous, with oblong slightly emarginate yellow anthers; pistillate flowers usually in pairs, with an ovate glabrous ovary and slender bright red styles. Fruit produced sparingly in elongated spikes, oblong, ⅓′—½′ long, papillose, black, and covered with a thin coat of white wax; seed oblong-oval, acute at apex, rounded at base, ⅛′ long, bright orange-brown, with a pale yellow hilum.
Usually a shrub, with numerous slender stems, occasionally arborescent and 18°—20° high, with a straight trunk 6°—8° tall and 2′—3′ in diameter, and stout branchlets roughened by small scattered lenticels, coated at first with dense pale tomentum, soon becoming bright red-brown, scurfy, and glabrous or pubescent. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, nearly ⅛′ long, with numerous loosely imbricated lanceolate acute red-brown scurfy-pubescent scales. Bark thin, smooth, nearly white.
Distribution. Deep swamps, Round Lake, Jackson County, and Appalachicola, and Saint Andrews Bay, Florida; near Mobile and Stockton, Alabama; near Poplarville, Pearl County, Mississippi, and Bogalusa, Washington Parish, Louisiana.
3. Myrica californica Cham. Wax Myrtle.
Leaves oblanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, acute at apex, remotely serrate except at the gradually narrowed base with small incurved teeth, decurrent on a short stout petiole, thin and firm, dark green and lustrous above, yellow-green, glabrous or puberulous and marked by minute black glandular dots below, 2′—4′ long, ½′—¾′ wide, with a narrow yellow midrib and numerous obscure primary veins arcuate near the thickened and revolute margins, slightly fragrant, gradually deciduous after the end of their first year. Flowers subtended by conspicuous bractlets, those of the two sexes on the same plant; staminate in oblong simple aments often 1′ long, pistillate in shorter aments in the axils of upper leaves, androgynous aments occurring between the two with staminate flowers at their base and pistillate flowers above, or with staminate flowers also mixed with the pistillate at their apex; scales of the aments ovate, acute, coated with pale tomentum; stamens numerous, with oblong slightly emarginate dark red-purple anthers soon becoming yellow; ovary ovoid, with bright red exserted styles. Fruit in short crowded spikes ripening in the early autumn and usually falling during the winter, globose, papillose, dark purple, covered with a thin coat of grayish white wax; seed pale reddish brown, minute.
A tree, occasionally 40° high, with a trunk 14′—15′ in diameter, short slender branches forming a narrow compact round-topped head, and stout branchlets coated at first with loose tomentum, dark green or light or dark red-brown, glabrous or pubescent during their first season, becoming in their second year much roughened by the elevated leaf-scars, darker and ultimately ashy gray; usually smaller at the north and toward the northern and southern limits of its range reduced to a low shrub often only 3°—4° tall. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, about ⅓′ thick, with loosely imbricated ovate acute dark red-brown tomentose scales nearly ½′ long when fully grown and long-persistent on the branch. Bark smooth, compact, 1/16′—⅛′ thick, dark gray or light brown on the surface and dark red-brown internally. Wood heavy, very hard and strong, brittle, close-grained, light rose color, with thick lighter colored sapwood.
Distribution. Ocean sand-dunes and moist hillsides in the vicinity of the coast from the shores of Puget Sound to the neighborhood of Santa Monica, Los Angeles County, California; of its largest size on the shores of the Bay of San Francisco.
Occasionally used in California as a garden plant.
VII. LEITNERIACEÆ.
A tree or shrub, with pale slightly fissured bark, scaly buds, stout terete pithy branchlets marked by pale conspicuous nearly circular lenticels and by elevated crescent-shaped angled or obscurely 3-lobed leaf-scars, very light soft wood, and thick fleshy stoloniferous yellow roots. Leaves involute in the bud, lanceolate to elliptic-lanceolate, acuminate or acute and short-pointed at apex, gradually narrowed at base, entire, with slightly revolute undulate margins, penniveined with remote primary veins arcuate and united near the margins, and conspicuous reticulate veinlets, petiolate, at first coated on the lower surface and on the petioles with thick pale tomentum and puberulous on the upper surface, thick and firm at maturity, bright green and lustrous above, pale and villose-pubescent below, deciduous. Flowers in unisexual aments, with ovate acute concave tomentose scales, the male and female on different plants, opening in early spring from buds formed the previous autumn and covered with acute chestnut-brown hairy scales; the staminate clustered near the end of the branches, their scales bearing on the thickened stipe a ring of 3—12 stamens, with slender incurved filaments and oblong light yellow introrse 2-celled anthers opening longitudinally; perianth 0; pistillate aments scattered, shorter and more slender than the staminate, their scales bearing in their axils a short-stalked pistil surrounded by a rudimentary perianth of small gland-fringed scales, the 2 larger lateral, the others next the axis of the inflorescence; ovary superior, pubescent, 1-celled, with an elongated flattened style inserted obliquely, curving inward above the middle in anthesis, grooved and stigmatic on the inner face; ovule solitary, attached laterally, ascending, semianatropous; micropyle directed upward. Fruit an oblong compressed dry drupe thick and rounded on the ventral, narrowed on the dorsal edge, rounded at base, thin and pointed at apex, chestnut-brown, rugose, with a thick dry exocarp closely investing the thin-walled light brown crustaceous rugose nutlet. Seed flattened, rounded at the ends, light brown, marked on the thick edge with the oblong nearly black hilum; embryo erect, surrounded by thin fleshy albumen; cotyledons oblong, flattened; radicle superior, conical, short, and fleshy.
The family consists of a single genus, Leitneria Chapm., with one species of the southern United States, named for a German naturalist killed in Florida during the Seminole War.
1. Leitneria floridana Chapm. Cork Wood.
Leaves 4′—6′ long, 1½′—2½′ wide, with petioles 1′—2′ in length. Flowers opening at the end of February or early in March; staminate aments 1′—1¼′ long, ¼′ thick, and twice as long as the pistillate. Fruit solitary or in clusters of 2—4, ripening when the leaves are about half grown, ¾′ long, ¼′ wide.
A shrub or small tree, occasionally 20° high, with a slender straight trunk 4′—5′ in diameter above the swollen gradually tapering base, spreading branches forming a loose open head, and branchlets at first light reddish brown and thickly coated with gradually deciduous hairs, becoming in their first winter glabrous or puberulous, especially toward the ends, and dark red-brown. Winter-buds: terminal broad, conic, ⅛′ long, covered by 10 or 12 oblong nearly triangular closely imbricated scales coated with pale tomentum and long-persistent at the base of the branch; lateral scattered, ovoid, flattened. Bark about 1/16′ thick, dark gray faintly tinged with brown, divided by shallow fissures into narrow rounded ridges. Wood soft, exceedingly light, close-grained, the layers of annual growth hardly distinguishable, pale yellow, without trace of heartwood; occasionally used for the floats of fishing-nets.
Distribution. Borders of swamps of the lower Altamaha River, Georgia (C. L. Boynton); muddy saline shores on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico near Apalachicola, Florida; swampy prairies, Velasco (E. J. Palmer), and swamps of the Brazos River near Columbia, Brazoria County, Texas; Varner, Lincoln County (B. F. Bush), and Moark, Clay County (E. J. Palmer) Arkansas; and in Butler and Dunklin Counties, southeastern Missouri, here sometimes occupying muddy sloughs of considerable extent to the exclusion of other woody plants.
VIII. JUGLANDACEÆ.
Aromatic trees, with watery juice, terete branchlets, scaly buds, the lateral buds often superposed, 2—4 together, and alternate unequally pinnate deciduous leaves with elongated grooved petioles and without stipules, the leaflets increasing in size from the lowest upward, penniveined, sessile, short-stalked or the terminal usually long-stalked. Flowers monœcious, opening after the unfolding of the leaves, the staminate in lateral aments and composed of a 3—6-lobed calyx in the axil of and adnate to an ovate acute bract, and numerous stamens inserted on the inner and lower face of the calyx in 2 or several rows, with short distinct filaments and oblong anthers opening longitudinally; the pistillate in a spike terminal on a branch of the year and composed of a 1—3-celled ovary subtended by an involucre free toward the apex and formed by the union of an anterior bract and 2 lateral bractlets, a 1 or 4-lobed calyx inserted on the ovary, a short style with 2 plumose stigmas stigmatic on the inner face, and a solitary erect orthotropous ovule. Fruit drupaceous, the exocarp (husk) indehiscent or 4-valved, inclosing a thick- or thin-shelled nut divided by partitions extending inward from the shell, and like the shell more or less penetrated by internal longitudinal cavities often filled with dry powder. Seed solitary, 2-lobed from the apex nearly to the middle, light brown, its coat thin, of 2 layers, without albumen; cotyledons fleshy and oily, sinuose or corrugated, 2-lobed; radicle short, superior, filling the apex of the nut. Of the six genera of the Walnut family two occur in North America.
CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN GENERA.
- Aments of staminate flowers simple; husk of the fruit indehiscent; nut sculptured; pith in plates.
- 1. Juglans.
- Aments of staminate flowers branched; husk of the fruit 4-valved; nut not sculptured; pith solid.
- 2. Carya.
1. JUGLANS L. Walnut.
Trees, with furrowed scaly bark, durable dark-colored wood, stout branchlets, laminate pith, terminal buds with 2 pairs of opposite more or less open scales often obscurely pinnate at apex, those of the inner pair more or less leaf-like, and obtuse slightly flattened axillary buds formed before midsummer and covered with 4 ovate rounded scales, closed or open during winter. Leaves with numerous leaflets, and terete petioles leaving in falling large conspicuous elevated obcordate 3-lobed leaf-scars displaying 3 equidistant U-shaped clusters of dark fibro-vascular bundle-scars; leaflets conduplicate in the bud, ovate, acute or acuminate, mostly unequal at base, with veins arcuate and united near the margins. Aments of the staminate flowers many-flowered, elongated, solitary or in pairs from lower axillary buds of upper nodes, appearing from between persistent bud-scales in the autumn and remaining during the winter as short cones covered by the closely imbricated bracts of the flowers; calyx 3—6-lobed, its bract free only at the apex; stamens 8—40, in 2 or several ranks, their anthers surmounted by a conspicuous dilated truncate or lobed connective; pistillate flowers in few-flowered spikes, their involucre villose, free only at the apex and variously cut into a laciniate border (corolla?) shorter than the erect calyx-lobes; ovary rarely of 3 carpels; stigmas club-shaped, elongated, fimbriately plumose. Fruit ovoid, globose or pyriform, round or obscurely 4-angled, with a fleshy indehiscent glabrate or hirsute husk; nut ovoid or globose, more or less flattened, hard, thick-walled, longitudinally and irregularly rugose, the valves alternate with the cotyledons, and more or less ribbed along the dorsal sutures and in some species also on the marginal sutures. Seed more or less compressed, gradually narrowed or broad and deeply lobed at base, with conspicuous dark veins radiating from the apex and from the minute basal hilum.
Juglans is confined to temperate North America, the West Indies, South America from Venezuela to Peru, western and northern China, Korea, Manchuria, Japan, and Formosa. Eleven species are known. Of exotic species Juglans regia L., an inhabitant probably originally of China, is cultivated in the middle Atlantic and southern states and largely in California for its edible nuts, which are an important article of commerce. The wood of several species is valued for the interior finish of houses and for furniture.
Juglans, from Jupiter and glands, is the classical name of the Walnut-tree.
CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES.
- Fruit racemose; nut 4-ribbed at the sutures with smaller intermediate ribs, 2-celled at the base; heartwood light brown; leaflets 11—17, oblong-lanceolate.
- 1. J. cinerea (A, C).
- Fruit usually solitary or in pairs; nut without sutural ribs, 4-celled at the base; heartwood dark brown.
- Nuts prominently and irregularly ridged with often interrupted ridges; leaflets 15—23, ovate-lanceolate.
- 2. J. nigra (A, C).
- Nuts more or less deeply longitudinally grooved.
- Nuts up to 1½′ in diameter; leaflets 9—13, rarely 19, oblong-lanceolate to ovate, acuminate, coarsely serrate.
- 3. J. major (F, H).
- Nuts not more than ¾′ in diameter.
- Leaflets 17—23, narrow-lanceolate, long-pointed.
- 4. J. rupestris (C).
- Leaflets 11—15 or rarely 19, oblong-lanceolate, acute or acuminate, the lower often rounded at the apex.
- 5. J. californica (G).
- Nuts obscurely or not at all grooved, up to 2′ in diameter; leaflets 15—19, ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, long-pointed.
- 6. J. Hindsii (G).
1. Juglans cinerea L. Butternut.
Leaves 15′—30′ long, with stout pubescent petioles, and 11—17 oblong-lanceolate acute or acuminate leaflets 2′—3′ long, 1½′—2′ wide, finely serrate except at the unequal rounded base, glandular and sticky as they unfold, at maturity thin, yellow-green and rugose above, pale and soft-pubescent below; turning yellow or brown and falling early in the autumn. Flowers: staminate in thick aments 3′—5′ long; calyx usually 6-lobed, light yellow-green, puberulous on the outer surface, ¼′ long, its bract rusty-pubescent, acute at apex; stamens 8—12, with nearly sessile dark brown anthers and slightly lobed connectives; pistillate in 6—8-flowered spikes, constricted above the middle, about ⅓′ long, its bract and bractlets coated with sticky white or pink glandular hairs and rather shorter than the linear-lanceolate calyx-lobes; stigmas bright red, ½′ long. Fruit in 3—5 fruited drooping clusters, obscurely 2 or rarely 4-ridged, ovoid-oblong, coated with rusty clammy matted hairs, 1½′—2½′ long with a thick husk; nut ovoid, abruptly contracted and acuminate at apex, with 4 prominent and 4 narrow less conspicuous ribs, light brown, deeply sculptured between the ribs into thin broad irregular longitudinal plates, 2-celled at the base and 1-celled above the middle; seed sweet, very oily, soon becoming rancid.
A tree, occasionally 100° high, with a tall straight trunk 2°—3° in diameter, and sometimes free of branches for half its height; more frequently divided 20° or 30° above the ground into many stout limbs spreading horizontally and forming a broad low symmetrical round-topped head, and dark orange-brown or bright green rather lustrous branchlets coated at first with rufous pubescence, covered more or less thickly with pale lenticels, gradually becoming puberulous, brown tinged with red or orange in their second year and marked by light gray leaf-scars with large black fibro-vascular bundle-scars and elevated bands of pale tomentum separating them from the lowest axillary bud. Winter-buds: terminal ½′—⅔′ long, ¼′ wide, flattened and obliquely truncate at apex, their outer scales coated with short pale pubescence; axillary buds ovoid, flattened, rounded at apex, ⅛′ long, covered with rusty brown or pale pubescence. Bark of young stems and of the branches smooth and light gray, becoming on old trees ¾′—1′ thick, light brown, deeply divided into broad ridges separating on the surface into small appressed plate-like scales. Wood light, soft, not strong, coarse-grained, light brown, turning darker with exposure, with thin light-colored sapwood composed of 5 or 6 layers of annual growth; largely employed in the interior finish of houses, and for furniture. The inner bark possesses mild cathartic properties. Sugar is made from the sap, and the green husks of the fruit are used to dye cloth yellow or orange color.
Distribution. Rich moist soil near the banks of streams and on low rocky hills, southern New Brunswick to the valley of the St. Lawrence River in Ontario, the northern peninsular of Michigan, southern Minnesota, eastern South Dakota, eastern Iowa, southeastern Nebraska, and southward to central Kansas, northern Arkansas, Delaware, eastern Virginia, and on the Appalachian Mountains and their foothills to northern Georgia; in northern Alabama, southern Illinois and western Tennessee; most abundant northward.
Occasionally cultivated.
× Juglans quadrangulata A. Rehd., a natural hybrid of J. cinerea and the so-called English Walnut (J. regia) is not uncommon in eastern Massachusetts, and a hybrid of J. cinerea with the Japanese J. Sieboldiana Maxm. has appeared in the United States.
2. Juglans nigra L. Black Walnut.
Leaves 1°—2° long, with pubescent petioles, and 15—23 ovate-lanceolate leaflets 3′—3½′ long, 1′—1¼′ wide, long-pointed, sharply serrate except at the more or less rounded often unequal base, thin, bright yellow-green, lustrous and glabrous above, soft-pubescent below, especially along the slender midrib and primary veins; turning bright clear yellow in the autumn before falling. Flowers: staminate in stout puberulous aments 3′—5′ long, calyx rotund, 6-lobed, with nearly orbicular lobes concave and pubescent on the outer surface, its bract ¼′ long, nearly triangular, coated with rusty brown or pale tomentum; stamens 20—30, arranged in many series, with nearly sessile purple and truncate connectives; pistillate in 2—5 flowered spikes, ovoid, gradually narrowed at the apex, ¼′ long, their bract and bractlets coated below with pale glandular hairs and green and puberulous above, sometimes irregularly cut into a laciniate border, or reduced to an obscure ring just below the apex of the ovary; calyx-lobes ovate, acute, light green, puberulous on the outer, glabrous or pilose on the inner surface; stigmas yellow-green tinged on the margins with red, ½′—¾′ long. Fruit solitary or in pairs, globose, oblong and pointed at apex, or slightly pyriform, light yellow-green, roughened by clusters of short pale articulate hairs, 1½′—2′ in diameter, with a thick husk; nut oval or oblong, slightly flattened, 1⅛′—1½′ in diameter, dark brown tinged with red, deeply divided on the outer surface into thin or thick often interrupted irregular ridges, 4-celled at base and slightly 2-celled at the apex; seed sweet, soon becoming rancid.
A tree, frequently 100° and occasionally 150° high, with a straight trunk often clear of branches for 50°—60° and 4°—6° in diameter, thick limbs spreading gradually and forming a comparatively narrow shapely round-topped head of mostly upright rigid branches, and stout branchlets covered at first with pale or rusty matted hairs, dull orange-brown and pilose or puberulous during their first winter, marked by raised conspicuous orange-colored lenticels and elevated pale leaf-scars, gradually growing darker and ultimately light brown. Winter-buds: terminal ovoid, slightly flattened, obliquely rounded at apex, coated with pale silky tomentum, ⅓′ long, with usually 4 obscurely pinnate scales; axillary ⅛′ long, tomentose, their outer scales opening at the apex during the winter. Bark of young stems and branches light brown and covered with thin scales, becoming on old trees 2′—3′ thick, dark brown slightly tinged with red, and deeply divided into broad rounded ridges broken on the surface into thick appressed scales. Wood heavy, hard, strong, rather coarse-grained, very durable, rich dark brown, with thin lighter colored sapwood of 10—20 layers of annual growth; largely used in cabinet-making, the interior finish of houses, gun-stocks, air-planes, and in boat and shipbuilding.
Distribution. Rich bottom-lands and fertile hillsides, western Massachusetts to southern Ontario, southern Michigan, southeastern Minnesota, central and northern Nebraska, central Kansas, eastern Oklahoma, and southward to western Florida, central Alabama and Mississippi, and the valley of the San Antonio River, Texas; most abundant in the region west of the Alleghany Mountains, and of its largest size on the western slopes of the high mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee, and on the fertile river bottom-lands of southern Illinois and Indiana, southwestern Arkansas, and Oklahoma; largely destroyed for its valuable timber, and now rare.
Occasionally cultivated as an ornamental tree in the eastern United States, and in western and central Europe. × Juglans intermedia Carr., a natural hybrid, of J. nigra with the so-called English Walnut (J. regia) has appeared in the United States and Europe, and on the banks of the James River in Virginia has grown to a larger size than any other recorded Walnut-tree. In California a hybrid, known as “Royal,” between J. nigra and J. Hindsii has been artificially produced.
3. Juglans major Hell. Nogal.
Juglans rupestris var. major Torr.
Juglans rupestris Sarg., in part, not Engelm.
Leaves 8′—12′ long, with slender pubescent petioles and rachis, and 9—13 rarely 19 oblong-lanceolate to ovate acuminate often slightly falcate coarsely serrate leaflets cuneate or rounded at base, coated when they first appear with scurfy pubescence, soon becoming glabrous, or at maturity slightly pubescent on the midrib below, 3′—4′, or those of the lower pairs 1½′—2′ long, and 1′—1½′ wide, thin, yellow-green, with a thin conspicuous yellow midrib and primary veins. Flowers: staminate in slender puberulous or pubescent aments 8′—10′ long; calyx nearly orbicular, long-stalked, pale yellow-green, 5 or 6-lobed, the lobes ovate, acute, hoary pubescent on the outer surface, their bract acute, coated with thick pale tomentum; stamens 30—40, with nearly sessile yellow anthers, and slightly divided connectives; pistillate not seen. Fruit subglobose to slightly ovoid or oblong, abruptly contracted at apex into a short point (J. elæopyren Dode), densely tomentose when half grown, 1′—1½′ in diameter, with a thin husk covered with close rufous pubescence; nut dark brown or black, slightly compressed, usually rather broader than high, or ovoid, rounded or bluntly acute at apex, rounded and sometimes depressed at base, longitudinally grooved with broad deep grooves, thick shelled; seed small and sweet.
A tree sometimes 50° high, with a straight trunk occasionally 3°—4° in diameter, or divided at the ground into several large stems, stout branches forming a narrow head, and slender branchlets thickly coated when they first appear with rufous pubescence, becoming red-brown, pubescent or puberulous and marked by many small pale lenticels at the end of their first season and ashy gray the following year.
Distribution. Banks of streams in the cañons of central and southern New Mexico and Arizona, and on Oak Creek near Flagstaff, Arizona on the Colorado plateau (P. Lowell).
4. Juglans rupestris Engelm. Walnut.
Leaves 9′—12′ long, with slender pubescent or puberulous petioles and rachis, and 13—23 narrow lanceolate long-pointed usually falcate finely serrate leaflets entire or nearly entire on their incurved margins, cuneate or rounded at base, thin, light green, glabrous or pubescent on the midrib below, 2′—3′ long and ⅓′—⅔′ wide. Flowers: staminate in slender aments, 3′—4′ long, pubescent when they first appear, becoming glabrous; calyx short-stalked, nearly orbicular, light yellow-green, puberulous on the outer surface, 3—5-lobed with rounded lobes, their bracts ovate-lanceolate, coated with hoary tomentum; stamens about 20, with nearly sessile yellow anthers and slightly lobed connectives; pistillate flowers oblong, narrowed at the ends, thickly coated with rufous pubescence; bract and bractlets irregularly divided into a laciniate border rather shorter than the ovate acute calyx-lobes; stigmas green tinged with red, ⅓′ long. Fruit globose or subglobose, tipped with the persistent remnants of the calyx, pubescent or puberulous with rusty hairs, ½′—¾′ in diameter, with a thin husk; nut subglobose to slightly ovoid, sometimes obscurely 4-ridged from the apex nearly to the middle (J. subrupestris Dode), deeply grooved with longitudinal simple or forked grooves, 4-celled at base, 2-celled at apex, thick shelled; seed small and sweet.
A shrubby round-headed tree occasionally 20°—30° high, with a short generally leaning trunk 18′—30′ in diameter, usually branching from near the ground, and slender branchlets coated with pale scurfy pubescence often persistent for two or three years, orange-red and marked by pale lenticels in their first winter and ultimately ashy gray; often a shrub with clustered stems only a few feet high. Winter-buds: terminal, ¼′—½′ long, compressed, narrowed and often oblique at apex, covered with pale tomentum; axillary ⅛′ long, compressed, coated with pale pubescence. Wood heavy, hard, not strong, rich dark brown with thick white sapwood. The beauty of the veneers obtained from the stumps of the large trees is fast causing their destruction.
Distribution. Limestone banks of the streams of southern, central and western Texas from the Rio Grande to the mountains in the western part of the state; western Oklahoma (Kiowa, Greer, Beckham, Rogel, Mills and Ellis Counties); southeastern New Mexico.
Occasionally cultivated in the eastern United States and in Europe, and hardy as far north as eastern Massachusetts; interesting as producing the smallest nuts of any of the known Walnut-trees.
5. Juglans californica S. Wats.
Leaves 6′—9′ long, with glandular pubescent petioles and rachis, and 11—15, rarely 19, oblong-lanceolate acute or acuminate glabrous finely serrate leaflets cuneate or rounded at base, 1′—2½′ long and ⅓′—¾′ wide, the lower often rounded at apex. Flowers: staminate in slender glabrous or puberulous aments 2′—3′ long; calyx puberulous on the outer surface with acute or rarely rounded lobes, its bract, puberulous; stamens 30—40, with yellow anthers and short connectives bifid at apex; the pistillate subglobose, puberulous; stigmas yellow, ½′ long. Fruit globose, ⅓′—¾′ in diameter, with a thin dark-colored puberulous husk; nut nearly globose, deeply grooved with longitudinal grooves, thick shelled, 4-celled at base, imperfectly 2-celled at apex; seed small and sweet.
A shrubby round-headed tree or shrub generally 12°—20°, rarely 40°—50° high, usually branching from the ground or with a short trunk 1° or rarely 2°—3° in diameter, and slender branchlets coated with scurfy rufous pubescence when they first appear, glabrous, reddish brown and marked by pale lenticels at the end of their first season and gray the following year. Winter-buds coated with rufous tomentum.
Distribution. Banks of streams and bottom-lands in the southern California coast region from Santa Barbara and the Ojai valley to San Fernando and the Sierra Santa Monica, and along the foothills of the Sierra Madre to the San Bernardino Mountains and southward to the Sierra Santa Anna.
A curious seminal variety (var. quercina Babcock) with compound leaves composed of 3 oval leaflets, the terminal long-stalked and 2 or 3 times larger than the lateral leaflets, is occasionally cultivated in California.
6. Juglans Hindsii Rehd.
Juglans californica S. Wats., in part.
Juglans californica var. Hindsii Jep.
Leaves 9′—12′ long, with slender villose pubescent petioles and rachis, and 15—19, usually 19, ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate long-pointed often slightly falcate leaflets, serrate with remote teeth except toward the usually rounded cuneate or rarely cordate base, thin, puberulous above while young, becoming bright green, lustrous and glabrous on the upper surface, below furnished with conspicuous tufts of pale hairs, and villose-pubescent along the midrib and primary veins, 2½′—4′ long and ¾′—1′ wide. Flowers: staminate in slender glabrous or sparingly villose aments 3′—5′ long; calyx elongated, coated like its bract with scurfy pubescence, divided into 5 or 6 acute lobes; stamens 30—40, with short connectives bifid at apex; ovary of the pistillate flower oblong-ovoid, thickly covered with villose pubescence, ⅛′ long, the border of the thin bract and bractlets much shorter than the calyx-lobes; stigma yellow. Fruit globose, 1¼′—2′ in diameter, with a thin dark-colored husk covered with short soft pubescence; nut nearly globose, somewhat flattened at the ends, faintly grooved with remote longitudinal depressions, thick shelled; seed small and sweet.
A tree usually 30°—40°, occasionally 75° high, with a tall trunk 1°—2° in diameter, stout pendulous branches forming a narrow round-topped head, and comparatively slender branchlets thickly coated when they first appear with villose pubescence, reddish brown and puberulous, and marked by pale lenticels and small elevated obscurely 3-lobed leaf scars during their first winter, becoming darker and nearly glabrous in their second year. Winter-buds coated with hoary tomentum; terminal acute, compressed, more or less enlarged at apex, ¼′—⅓′ long; axillary usually solitary, nearly globose, about 1/16′ in diameter. Bark gray-brown, smoothish, longitudinally fissured into narrow plates. Wood heavy, hard, rather coarse-grained, dark brown often mottled, with thick pale sapwood of from 8 to 10 layers of annual growth.
Distribution. Coast region of central California; banks of the lower Sacramento River; along streams near the western base of Mt. Diablo, and on eastern slope of the Napa Range near Atlas Peak east of Napa Valley; near Loyalton in the Sierra Valley.
Often cultivated in California as a shade tree and as stock on which to graft varieties of Juglans regia L., and rarely in the eastern states and in Europe. In California, a hybrid known as “Paradox” between J. Hindsii and J. regia has been artificially produced.
2. CARYA NUTT. Hickory.
Hicoria Rafn.
Trees, with smooth gray bark becoming on old trunks rough or scaly, strong hard tough brown heartwood, pale sapwood and tough terete flexible branchlets, solid pith, buds covered with few valvate or with numerous imbricated scales, the axillary buds much smaller than the terminal. Leaves often glandular-dotted, their petioles sometimes persistent on the branches during the winter, and in falling leaving large elevated oblong or semiorbicular more or less 3-lobed emarginate leaf-scars displaying small marginal clusters and central radiating lines of dark fibro-vascular bundle-scars; leaflets involute in the bud, ovate or obovate, usually acuminate, thick and firm, serrate, mostly unequal at base, with veins forked and running to the margins; turning clear bright yellow in the autumn. Aments of the staminate flowers ternate, slender, solitary or fascicled in the axils of leaves of the previous or rarely of the current year, or at the base of branches of the year from the inner scales of the terminal bud, the lateral branches in the axils of lanceolate acute persistent bracts; calyx usually 2 rarely 3-lobed, its bract free nearly to the base and usually much longer than the ovate rounded or acuminate calyx-lobes; stamens 3—10, in 2 or 3 series, their anthers ovate-oblong, emarginate or divided at apex, yellow or red, pilose or hirsute, as long or longer than their slender connectives; pistillate flowers sessile, in 2—10-flowered spikes, with a perianth-like involucre, slightly 4-ridged, unequally 4-lobed at apex, villose and covered on the outer surface with yellow scales more or less persistent on the fruit, the bract much longer than the bractlets and the single calyx-lobe; stigmas short, papillose-stigmatic. Fruit ovoid, globose or pyriform, with a thin or thick husk becoming hard and woody at maturity, 4-valved, the sutures alternate with those of the nut, sometimes more or less broadly winged, splitting to the base or to the middle; nut oblong, obovoid or subglobose, acute, acuminate, or rounded at apex, tipped by the hardened remnants of the style, narrowed and usually rounded at base, cylindric, or compressed contrary to the valves, the shell thin and brittle or thick, hard, and bony, smooth or variously rugose or ridged on the outer surface, 4-celled at base, 2-celled at apex. Seed compressed, variously grooved on the back of the flat or concave lobes, sweet or bitter.
Carya is confined to the temperate region of eastern North America from the valley of the St. Lawrence River to the highlands of Mexico, and to southern China where one species occurs. Of the seventeen species, fifteen inhabit the territory of the United States.
The generic name is from Καρύα, an ancient name of the Walnut.
CONSPECTUS OF THE SPECIES OF THE UNITED STATES.
- Bud-scales valvate, the inner strap-shaped and only occasionally slightly accrescent; fruit more or less broadly winged at the sutures; the thin partitions of the nut containing cavities filled with dark astringent powder (absent in 3 and 5).
- Shell of the nut thin and brittle; leaflets more or less falcate.
- Aments of staminate flowers nearly sessile, usually on branches of the previous year; lobes of the seed entire or slightly notched at apex.
- Leaflets 9—17; nut ovoid-oblong, cylindric; seed sweet.
- 1. C. pecan (A, C).
- Leaflets 7—13; nut oblong, compressed; seed bitter.
- 2. C. texana (C).
- Aments of staminate flowers pedunculate, on branches of the year or of the previous year; lobes of the bitter seed deeply 2-lobed.
- Leaflets 7—9; nut cylindric or slightly compressed.
- 3. C. cordiformis (A, C).
- Leaflets 7—13; nut compressed, usually conspicuously wrinkled.
- 4. C. aquatica (C).
- Shell of the ellipsoidal cylindric nut thick and hard; lobes of the sweet seed deeply 2-lobed; leaflets 7—9, occasionally 5, rarely slightly falcate; aments of staminate flowers long-pedunculate at the base of branches of the year.
- 5. C. myristicæformis (C).
- Bud-scales imbricated, the inner becoming much enlarged and often highly colored; aments of staminate flowers on peduncles from the base of branches of the year, rarely from the axils of leaves; fruit usually without wings; partitions of the nut thick without cavities filled with astringent powder; seed sweet, its lobes deeply 2-lobed.
- Branchlets usually stout (slender in 7); involucre ¼′—½′ in thickness, opening freely to the base.
- Bark on old trunks separating into long, broad, loosely attached plates; nuts pale.
- Branchlets light red-brown; shell of the nut thin.
- Leaflets 5 or rarely 7, obovate to ovate, acute or acuminate; nut much compressed, often long-pointed at apex; branchlets glabrous or pubescent.
- 6. C. ovata (A, C).
- Leaflets 5, lanceolate, acuminate; nut little compressed, acute at apex; branchlets slender, glabrous.
- 7. C. carolinæ-septentrionalis (C).
- Branchlets pale orange color, pubescent; leaflets usually 7—9; shell of the nut thick.
- 8. C. laciniosa (A, C).
- Bark not scaly, on old trunks dark, deeply ridged; leaflets 7—9, often subcoriaceous, pubescent below; nut reddish brown, often long-pointed, thick shelled; branchlets pubescent.
- 9. C. alba (A, C).
- Branchlets slender; leaves 5—7-foliolate; involucre of the fruit tardily dehiscent to the middle, indehiscent or opening freely to the base; shell of the nut thick, bark close, (sometimes scaly in 13).
- Branchlets and leaves not covered when they first appear with rusty brown pubescence.
- Involucre of the fruit 3—5.5 mm. in thickness, opening freely to the base, leaves usually 7-foliolate; winter-buds pubescent.
- Leaflets hoary tomentose below in early spring, slightly pubescent at maturity; petioles and rachis glabrous; fruit broad-obovoid; branchlets glabrous.
- 10. C. leiodermis (C).
- Leaflets covered in early spring with silvery scales, pale and pubescent below during the season; petioles and rachis more or less thickly covered with fascicled hairs; fruit ellipsoidal to obovoid or globose; branchlets glabrous or slightly pubescent.
- 11. C. pallida (A, C).
- Involucre of the fruit 1—3 mm. in thickness; winter-buds glabrous or puberulous.
- Leaves 5, rarely 7-foliolate, glabrous or rarely slightly pubescent; fruit obovoid, often narrowed below into a stipitate base, the involucre indehiscent or tardily dehiscent.
- 12. C. glabra (A, C).
- Leaves generally 7-foliolate, glabrous or rarely pubescent; fruit ellipsoidal, subglobose or obovoid, the involucre opening freely to the base; bark often more or less scaly.
- 13. C. ovalis (A, C).
- Branchlets and leaves densely covered when they first appear with rusty brown pubescence; leaflets usually 5—7; winter-buds rusty pubescent.
- Fruit obovoid; the involucre 2—3 mm. in thickness; peduncles of the aments of staminate flowers often from the axils of leaves; branchlets soon becoming glabrous.
- 14. C. floridana (C).
- Fruit subglobose to broadly obovoid, ellipsoidal or pyriform, the involucre on the different varieties 2—13 mm. in thickness; branchlets pubescent through their first season.
- 15. C. Buckleyi (A, C).