At the close of the first season the plants were from one to two feet high and quite stocky, with a mass of small fibrous roots. The next spring they were transplanted into nursery rows, and set about one foot apart. The third spring I laid out about one acre for a specimen filbert orchard, and after the ground had been thoroughly prepared, the plants were set ten feet apart in the row, and twelve between the rows. No crop was planted among the trees, but the ground was kept clean and free from weeds during the summer, with cultivator and harrow. All suckers springing from the base of the stems were removed as soon as they appeared, and under such treatment the plants made a vigorous growth. Two years later quite a number of the trees came into bearing, these showing that I was likely to have nearly as many varieties in my orchard as there were trees. Some of the varieties might be better than the parent, but the greater part were certain to be inferior in size. The fourth year after planting in the orchard the trees gave me a heavy crop of nuts, and they made a fine appearance as one looked down between the long rows, as shown in Fig. 40. But this season my old enemy, the filbert blight, appeared again, and branches and main stems began to blacken and the leaves to wither. But I had bushels of nuts and in great variety, and by sending specimen baskets of the long-husk varieties to dealers in New York, learned that there was an almost unlimited demand for such nuts, at prices ranging from thirty to seventy-five cents per pound, if sent to market in their fresh, half-ripened husk; but later on, when the nuts have fallen out and become thoroughly ripened, as when imported, ten cents a pound may be considered an average price for the larger varieties. Several of these are shown in Fig. 41, of natural size and form. Another extra-large hazel is shown in Fig. 42. The fifth year after planting, my specimen filbert orchard had suffered so much from blight that it appeared as shown in Fig. 43; but a few dozen trees have been reserved, the rest being removed and reduced to ashes.

Name and Nature of the Filbert Blight.—The reader must not suppose that one who has spent as much time and money as the writer in experimenting with these nuts, would make no effort to discover the origin and name of such a virulent disease, and means of destroying it if these were known. For many years I had been well aware of its presence in nearly all of the nurseries of the older States, as well as in the public parks and private gardens. In the meantime I had diligently examined the reports of the Division of Vegetable Pathology of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, as well as the hundreds of bulletins of the various State experiment stations, treating of the fungous diseases of plants, all without finding a hint or reference to this widely distributed and destructive blight of the filbert. I also sent many specimens of the diseased twigs and branches to professional mycologists, with no better results. With the nature of the disease, its mode of multiplication and distribution, I had become somewhat familiar, but the information sought was: Had it ever been described and given a scientific name, and if so, where, and by whom? This much of its history had somehow escaped me, and, as it would appear from the following correspondence, the chances were none too good of finding it.

In reply to an inquiry directed to the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Division of Vegetable Pathology, I received the following:

Washington, D. C., Aug. 4, 1894.

Dear Sir:

Your letter of Aug. 2, relating to the disease of the filbert, is at hand. In reply I have to say that we have not investigated this trouble, and are therefore unable to furnish you with any definite information upon it. Specimens of the disease, as you describe it, have never been, so far as I know, referred to the Division, nor am I able to find any record of any such disease in foreign or domestic literature. If you will send us specimens we shall be pleased to examine them and furnish you a report. We should also be pleased to have any information from you in regard to the manner in which the disease works.    Very truly,

B. T. GALLOWAY, Chief of Division.

The specimens requested were forwarded promptly by mail, and in the absence of the Chief of Division, they fell into the hands of one of his assistants, who reported as follows:

Washington, D. C., Aug. 14, 1894.

Dear Sir:

Your letter of Aug. 7 is received, together with the specimens. The stems of the Corylus are affected with one of the Pyrenomycetes. Cryptospora anomala, Pk. The fungus is described in "North American Pyrenomycetes," by Ellis and Everhart, p. 531. It attacks Corylus Americana, but appears to be worst on the European varieties, as you say. The pustules appear first on the young branches, and later on the older ones and on the trunk. The roots are not killed.

The only remedy known is to cut out and burn the diseased stems. Whether Bordeaux mixture or any other copper solution will protect the shrub from attack, is not known. So far as I know, it has not been tried. It is probable, however, that if the stems were thoroughly sprayed with the Bordeaux mixture they would be protected from attack. The mycelium of the fungus grows into the cambium and practically girdles the stems. The black pustules contain the spores.

Very truly yours,   
ALBERT F. WOODS, Acting Chief.

On the receipt of this note of Prof. Woods, I looked up Ellis and Everhart's work, a voluminous one of over 800 octavo pages, published by the authors at Newfield, N. J. This filbert blight is briefly described under the scientific name of Cryptospora anomala, Pk., but Prof. Peck writes me that "the description was made from specimens discovered near Albany, N. Y., in May, 1874. In 1882 this description was republished by Saccardo, in his "Syllage Fungorum," Vol. I, p. 470, under the name of Cryptosporella anomala. The original name in Report 28, p. 72, was Diatrype anomala. In 1892 Ellis and Everhart, in "Pyrenomycetes of North America," p. 531, changed the name again, making it Cryptospora anomala." So at present we have the names of this fungus in the following order:

Diatrypes anomal, Peck, 1876.
Cryptosporella anomala, Sacc., 1882.
Cryptospora anomala, E. and E., 1892.

Ellis and Everhart, after giving scientific description, add,

"On living stems of Corylus Americana, Albany, N. Y. (Peck), Iowa (Holoway), on Corylus Avellana, Newfield, N. J. The pustules appear first on the smaller branches, and are serrately arranged along one side of the branch; afterwards they appear also on the larger branches and on the trunk itself, and in the course of two or three years the part of tree above ground is entirely killed. The roots, however, still retain their vitality, and continue to send up each year a luxuriant growth of new shoots, destined to be destroyed the succeeding year by the inexorable pest. The imported trees seem to be more injuriously affected than the native species."

The observations of Ellis and Everhart and Prof. Woods accord with my own, but I may say that the infested branches often show the presence of the mycelium in the bark and alburnum,—by a slight shrinking,— weeks or months before the pustules appear, for these are merely indications of the last stage in the life of the fungus, and with the throwing off the spores from these pustules the old parasite perishes.

The pustules, when fully open, are from one-sixteenth to one-eighth of an inch in diameter, usually round, but sometimes slightly oval in form, and placed mainly in almost straight rows lengthways of the branch, as shown in Fig. 44. These pustules appear on wood of all ages, from two years upward, and in what may be termed patches, ranging from a few inches to a foot or more in length, and more frequently on the upper side than the underside of the branches.

This fungus is undoubtedly indigenous, and its host plant is the common American hazel (C. Americana). From a very careful search, I have not been able to find any clump of these bushes of any considerable size that was entirely free from pustulous stems. But on these wild plants it seems to do but little harm, for if a stem is killed, another soon springs up from the roots to take its place; but when this fungus invades our orchards and gardens and attacks filbert trees, we recognize it as an implacable enemy. How far the spores of this fungus are likely to be carried by the wind, transported on the clothes of a person, or the hair of domestic animals, I do not know, but it certainly is not safe to plant the susceptible species and varieties within a mile of the wild hazel bushes, unless the planter is prepared to use fungicides freely on his trees. There are certain phases of this filbert blight that are rather obscure and scarcely explainable; as, for instance, its virulence among some species and varieties, and almost if not total absence among others. So far as my observation extends, I have never found it attacking the native beaked hazel (Corylus rostrata), and my correspondents in the Northwest and in the Pacific States assure me that no blight on the hazel has, as yet, been found there, and its absence is probably due to the fact that the common hazel (C. Americana) is not an inhabitant of these regions.

In a neighbor's garden just across the highway from my own, there are, at this time, four old European hazelnut trees, fully twenty feet high and as many years old. They are of two varieties: one a small round nut, the other a long, slender nut, but neither of much value, because of their small size. The trees, however, are perfectly healthy, never having suffered from the blight, although these four are all that remain of a long row of choice European varieties all planted at the same time. Blight destroyed the better varieties, while these inferior ones continue to thrive and are exceedingly productive.

This native fungus that causes blight in the hazels is but one of a large number of similar maladies which have appeared and often worsted the horticulturist, in his endeavor to introduce and cultivate foreign species and varieties of plants, and like the tropical fevers, they may pass unnoticed among the natives, but are terribly fatal to immigrants from cooler climates. The disease so well known as the black knot (Otthia morbosa, Schu.), and widely destructive to the European varieties of the plum, and Morello cherries, has existed for ages among our native plums and black cherries, doing comparatively little harm; but it seems to protest, by its virulence, against the introduction of some foreign species. The same is true with various blights and rusts which attack the exotic pear, apple, quince, peach, and other of the larger fruits, and we have only to ascend the scale a few degrees from the microscopic fungi to the microscopic insects, to meet on the very threshold of this realm the minute but unconquerable grape louse (Phylloxera vastatrix), which for more than two centuries has prevented the successful cultivation of the European varieties of the grape in the open air everywhere east of the Rocky mountains in North America; although this minute insect has ever been present and a constant parasite of the indigenous species of the grape, but scarcely affecting the health of its host. The plum curculio, chestnut and hickory weevils, bean weevil, and many other similar species of insects appear to be ever protesting against the introduction of exotic plants, as well as the improvement of our indigenous kinds.

It is this blight, and nothing else, that has prevented the extensive cultivation of the improved varieties of the European filbert and hazelnut in this country, and not the uncongenial soil and climate, as has been so often "officially" proclaimed by men whose theories are far greater than their practical knowledge of such subjects. Men whose experience with these nuts has been limited to a few isolated bushes or trees in gardens or nurseries, where they were protected, or beyond the reach of the spores of the blight fungus, as has already been noted in the experience of Prince, Downing, Barry, and my neighbor Butler, of Brooklyn, could scarcely understand why others should remain so indifferent to such a promising industry, or why the demand for the trees remained so limited, with scarcely an attempt to plant filbert orchards anywhere in this country. Nurserymen have continued to offer the choice varieties at low prices per plant, and to advise their customers to cultivate filberts extensively, even to setting them in hedgerows; and yet home-grown filberts remain as rare in our markets as they were a hundred years ago, and all due to the simple reason that the insidious filbert blight still scatters its spores unrestrained.

With the present almost universal employment of various fungicides for the destruction of blights, mildews and rusts on cultivated fruits and vegetables, we may confidently assert that the diseases of the filbert may be readily controlled by the same means. The spraying of the trees with Bordeaux mixture and other copper solutions will certainly destroy the fungus spores, and with these out of the way filbert culture may become of as much importance and as popular here as it is in certain countries of Europe. In my own experience I have found no other nut tree (barring always the blight) that has been more satisfactory. The plants come forward rapidly, fruiting freely and abundantly when young, and if properly trained, the crop can be gathered with little labor, and as it is ready for use a month or more in advance of the arrival of fresh nuts from abroad, the home market during the time is at our command.

The number of applications of the fungicides that will be necessary during the season to rid the trees of blight, or the strength of the copper solution used, will depend somewhat upon circumstances and the condition of the subjects operated upon. If the trees are growing near hedges of wild hazels, where there is a constant or annual influx of the fungus spores, then greater care will be required to suppress them than if the trees are some distance from such sources of contagion; and it may be well for those contemplating planting filbert orchards, to examine their surroundings carefully in advance, in order to avoid local blight-breeding plants, and have these destroyed if any are found. I would also warn the cultivator against collecting branches of the wild hazel in the spring, carrying pollen-bearing catkins to be employed in fertilizing the pistillate flowers of the cultivated varieties, for by such means blight spores may be readily introduced into orchard and garden.

It will seldom be necessary to practice artificial fertilization, where any considerable number of trees are grown near together, because if ninety per cent. of the male catkins are winterkilled, the few remaining will be sufficient to supply pollen for the pistillate flowers. In my grounds filberts have never failed to produce annual crops after reaching a bearing age, although they have been subjected to great extremes of temperature in winter. One year the trees were in full bloom the last week in February, and although cold weather followed, the protected pistillate flowers were not injured. The winters of 1894 and 1895 were among the severest, in the way of continuous low temperature, I have ever experienced here, and while the filberts did not bloom until the first week in April, the crop proved to be abundant.

Insects Injurious to Filberts.—My personal observations lead me to believe that the filberts and hazels are, in this country, remarkably free from the depredations of noxious insects. Two species of nut weevils have been reported as breeding in the wild hazelnuts, viz., Balaninus obtusus, and B. nasicus, but among the many bushels of the European varieties of the filbert produced in my grounds I have never found one infested by a weevil or other insect. In Europe a nut weevil (B. nucum) is said to be very destructive to the wild hazel, often invading the filbert orchards, and this we can readily believe, because they are not at all uncommon in the imported nuts, but fortunately have not, as yet, become naturalized in this country.

The great hazel-leaf beetle, or as more generally known, elm-leaf beetle (Monocesta coryli), has been known in a few instances to attack and defoliate large patches of the wild hazel bushes, but this insect seems to prefer the elm, hence is rarely found on the hazels. But should it ever invade our filbert orchards, it can be readily destroyed by dusting or spraying the trees with Paris green, London purple, or other well-known insecticides. There may be an occasional invasion of caterpillars, like the tent worms, spanworms, leaf rollers of various species, and what are called leaf miners, but as these infest almost all kinds of deciduous trees and shrubs, we cannot consider them specially injurious to the filberts and hazels.

CHAPTER VII.

History.—The early white settlers of the Atlantic States found the hickory nut in common use among the Indians, who gathered and stored them in large quantities in the fall, for food during the winter months, and while our ancestors who sought to make homes in the western wilderness may have appreciated these luxuries, they needed land for cultivation, and to secure it the forests were destroyed, with no thought of preserving trees that would yield food for themselves or succeeding generations. Not only were the forests cleared away, as things to be banished from sight and mind, but as the hickories yielded superior timber for various agricultural and other implements, as well as for fuel, they were often sought for and utilized in advance of the general clearing of wood lands, and the first to feel the woodman's axe.

William Bartram, in the account of his travels through the Southern Atlantic States, from 1773 to 1778, and published in Philadelphia in 1791, says, in referring to these nuts, that they are held "in great estimation with the present generation of Indians, particularly Juglans exaltata, commonly called shellbarked hickory; the Creeks store up the latter in their towns. I have seen above an hundred bushels of these nuts belonging to one family. They pound them to pieces, and then cast them into boiling water, which, after passing through fine strainers, preserves the most oily part of the liquid; this they call by a name which signifies 'hickory milk;' it is as sweet and rich as fresh cream, and is an ingredient in most of their cookery, especially in hominy and corn cakes."

We can readily imagine what a delicious liquid hickory milk must be in which to cook hominy, rice, and similar kinds of grain; and there would be no danger from tuberculosis in this natural product of the vegetable kingdom. Perhaps at some future day, when milch cows are as rare in this country as they have been for ages in China and Japan, hickory milk will come into vogue again and be more highly valued by our people than it ever was by the aborigines.

While we have no romantic tales to repeat in which either hickory trees or the nuts have played an important part, yet we can well imagine that such delicious food must, in ages past, as well as in our own times, have been a coveted luxury, enjoyed at many a social gathering of friends and neighbors. Many a country boy and girl has welcomed the early autumn frosts, because they announced the opening of the nutting season, reminding them of the long winter evenings near at hand, and that the industrious and nimble squirrel was a sharp competitor in the nutting field; consequently, no time could be wasted if a store of such luxuries was to be gathered for home use, or to be sent to city or village market for the benefit of less fortunate consumers. It is to be hoped that this source of pleasure and profit may continue long after the original forests of our country have disappeared, and through the preservation and planting of the noble food-bearing hickories by the roadsides, in orchards, also for shelter, shade and ornament. Valuable as hickory timber and hickory nuts have always been to the inhabitants of this country, we might reasonably suppose that there would be many thousands of these trees planted every year, in order to keep up a supply and make good the annual loss sustained in the destruction constantly going on in our forests. But no such plantings appear to have been undertaken in our Northern States, and only quite recently in the Southern, where the pecan nut is attracting considerable attention, on account of the increase in demand, and the advance in price obtained for them in the markets. Furthermore, with the many millions of dollars expended by the general government to encourage the planting, preservation and cultivation of forest trees, no special encouragement has been extended to the nut-bearing kinds, and the man who plants a cottonwood or worthless willow is given as much credit as though he planted and reared a tree a thousand times more valuable to himself and the country at large.

This may not be a very creditable phase of nut culture in the United States, but it is history, nevertheless, and to attempt to suppress it would merely be encouraging negligence, which has already become so general that the inferior varieties of hickory nuts command a much higher price in our markets than the very choicest did a few years ago.

The nomenclature of the walnut family has been subjected to various revisions by botanists, during the present century, and there are probably others yet to follow in the near or distant future. In all other standard botanical works published prior to 1817-1818, the hickories were classed with the butternut, black walnut and Persian walnut, and under the generic name of Juglans. But in the year 1818 Mr. Thomas Nuttall, an eminent English botanist, who had given years to wandering through our forests and studying American plants, separated the hickories from the older genus of Juglans, placing them in a new one, to which he gave the name of Carya, from an ancient Greek name of the walnut tree. This classification of Nuttall's was immediately adopted by the botanists of his time, and has been observed, scarcely without question, by the authors of all the numerous botanical works published in America and Europe during the past seventy-five years. But now we are informed by some of our noted botanists that, in deference to the law of priority dominant in matters scientific, Nuttall's name for this genus must be abandoned, inasmuch as Mr. C. S. Rafinesque, an erratic Frenchman possessing considerable ability for botanical research, and who came to this country several years before Nuttall,—as some recent investigations appear to prove,—defined the distinct characteristics of the hickories, and not only proposed, but published the name Hicoria for this genus in 1817, while Nuttall's Carya did not appear until one year later, viz.: 1818. For these dates I am mainly indebted to Dr. N. L. Britton, who appears to have been delving among "first editions" of the works of the authors named (Bulletin, Torrey Botanical Club, 1888).

It seems strange, however, at this late date, that such eminent botanists as the late Dr. John Torrey and Dr. Asa Gray, who were both intimately acquainted with, in fact associates of, Rafinesque, should have ignored his rights in regard to the name of Hicoria, if he was really entitled to the honor of founding this genus and separating the hickories from the Juglans. But for some good reason they left the matter in abeyance, for their successors to settle. Dr. Torrey does, in a way, recognize Rafinesque, in his "Catalogue of Plants Within Thirty Miles of the City of New York," published in 1819, but in a manner which shows that he had no confidence in Rafinesque's claim, but did approve of Nuttall's classifications and name of Carya, for on page 74 he refers to the hickories as follows: "Carya, Nuttall; Hickoria, Rafinesque."

From this it appears that Dr. Torrey did not adopt Hicoria as the proper mode of spelling this word, but retained the letter k in giving it a Latin form. This is not strange, inasmuch as Rafinesque had no settled form of his own, and varied the spelling at different times; as, for instance, Scoria, Hicoria, Hickorius and Hicorius. It is but reasonable to suppose that Dr. Torrey was familiar with Rafinesque's earlier writings, and also whether his proposed generic name of Scoria, in 1808, was legitimate, or a misspelling of Hicoria, as suggested by Dr. Britton. But of one thing we may rest assured, and that is, Dr. Torrey would not knowingly detract from, nor fail to give every man full credit for his labors in any branch of natural history or elsewhere, and he certainly must have known Rafinesque in all his eccentricities and moods, for when in New York city he was usually the guest of Dr. Torrey, and these relations continued for many years.

A few of our leading botanists, having recently decided that Rafinesque's name of Hicoria must be restored, in deference to the laws of priority, and Nuttall's Carya be relegated to the position of a synonym, I have concluded to adopt it in this work, although I am well aware that a large majority of our botanists have protested against this change, probably because of the confusion it is likely to cause in the botanical literature of our times. My own reason for adopting Hicoria is not so much from any special reverence to the laws of priority, but because it is derived from an old American Indian name, and for all such I have a profound regard, and would retain and adopt them whenever and wherever they are at all appropriate to products indigenous to this country. The hickories being purely American, and unknown to Greece or Greeks, a semi-native name is all the more acceptable. It is not to be expected that botanical quibbles are of any special interest to the practical nut culturist, for a pecan or a shellbark hickory will taste just as sweet and command as high a price in market under one scientific name as another; but the cultivator may have occasion to look up the botanical name of his trees in some school botany, or other botanical work, and fail to find it, in the absence of some guide to the various changes that have been made in the name of the genus, as well as in the name of the synonyms of the different species. Then, again, propagators and dealers in trees are prone to employ unfamiliar names, whether they are old or new, this adding to the confusion, without benefit to either purchaser or cultivator.

To assist those who may have occasion to consult these pages for either the common or botanical names of the different species of the hickory, I shall endeavor to give the greater part of those compiled by Prof. C. S. Sargent (Tenth Census), Dr. Britton, and other eminent authorities whose works I have had occasion to consult in writing this treatise. It is not certain, however, that these revisions and readjustments of the scientific names of this genus of trees will remain undisturbed for any considerable number of years, for we have "many men of many minds" at work in the line of botanical research, and it can scarcely be expected that all will reach the same conclusion, either in fact or fancy; besides, it is often difficult, if not wholly impossible, to determine a species from the description given by the earlier botanists, for they are generally very brief and vague, and will often apply equally well to two or more species of the same genus. In some instances not a word is given in the way of description, merely a name, as in "Bartram's Travels" (1791), where he speaks of Juglans exaltata, a tall-growing hickory found in the region through which he was traveling, and we now know that it may have been any one of two or three species indigenous to the Southern States.

Under such confusing circumstances I shall make no claim of infallibility in applying names to species, but attempt no more than my predecessors have in the same direction, and my contemporaries are now attempting, i. e., make as close a guess as possible as to the species or variety of hickory which the earlier authors intended to name and briefly describe. The date of publication of some of the earlier works consulted are given, as an earnest of my desire to assent to the law of priority in such matters.

Pecan nut, Illinois nut (Hicoria Pecan. Marshall).—Leaves with thirteen to fifteen leaflets, oblong-lanceolate, serrate, pointed; nuts mostly oblong, smooth; husk thin, somewhat four-angled and four-valved, these at maturity shrinking, and falling apart when dropping to the ground. Shell of nut generally thin, smooth or slightly corrugated, varying widely in both form and size from less than one inch in length to nearly or quite two inches, abruptly blunt, or long and sharp pointed; the two-lobed cotyledon or kernel oily, sweet and delicious. A large, tall, but usually slender tree, with smooth or slightly furrowed bark, as seen in Fig. 45. Mainly indigenous to river bottoms in the Southern and Southwestern States, extending northward to Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and Southern Iowa.

Synonyms and their authors:

Juglans Pecan, Marshall, Arboretum Americanum, 1785.
Juglans Pecan, Walter, 1787.
Juglans olivæformis, Willdenow, 1809.
Carya olivæformis, Nuttall, 1818.
Juglans Illinoiensis, Wangenheim, 1787.
Juglans angustifolia, Aiton, Hortus Kewensis.
Juglans rubra, Gærtner.
Juglans cylindrica, Lamarck.

Shellbark or shagbark hickory (Hicoria alba. Clayton).—Leaflets mostly five, occasionally seven, the three upper ones obovate-lanceolate, the lower pair much smaller and oblong-lanceolate, as shown in Fig. 46, all taper-pointed, finely serrate, and slightly downy underneath. Terminal buds large and scaly. Fruit globose, somewhat depressed; husk smooth, very thick, firm, scarcely shrinking at maturity, but opening and falling with the nuts when ripe. Nuts variable in size, mainly thin-shelled, white, compressed or flattened, four-angled, with deep corrugations, blunt, rarely sharp-pointed; kernel large, sweet and excellent. One of the most common and popular of the indigenous edible nuts, collected in large quantities as they ripen in autumn, for home use and for sale, as the demand for this excellent nut is almost unlimited. A large tree, fifty to eighty feet high, and stem one to three feet in diameter, with a shaggy or scaly bark, which on old trees may be readily pulled off in long, shell-like plates. Timber well known as valuable for many purposes. This species has a very wide range, of from Maine to Florida in the Eastern States, and westward to Minnesota, thence southward through eastern Kansas, Missouri, Indian Territory and eastern Texas.

Synonyms:

Juglans alba, Clayton, Flora Virginica, 1739.
Juglans alba ovata, Miller, Gard. Dict., 1754.
Juglans alba, Linn., Spec. pl., 1754.
Juglans alba ovata, Marshall, 1785.
Juglans compressa (?), Willdenow, 1809.
Juglans exaltata (?), Bartram, 1791.
Juglans alba, Nuttall, 1818.
Juglans var. microcarpa, Nuttall.
Juglans squamosa (?), Lamarck.
Juglans ovalis (?), Wangenheim.

Although Clayton, as with most of the earlier botanists, fails to give any description of the foliage of the hickories he mentions, and all have the affix alba (white), yet his reference to the form of the nut and the scaly bark of the tree is sufficient to enable us to identify the species as that of our common shellbark hickory of the Atlantic States, which extends through the regions where he gathered his botanical specimens.

Big shellbark, thick or Western shellbark, etc. (Hicoria laciniosa. Michaux).—Leaflets seven to nine, obovate-oblong, finely serrate, roughish-downy or pubescent beneath. Buds large, composed of rather loose grayish scales; the young twigs stout, with a gray bark, most noticeable in winter. Fruit large, oval to oblong, usually four-ribbed above the middle, with depressions between; husk thick, somewhat spongy, shrinking at maturity, and splitting open from top downward. Nut large, with prominent ridges, and strongly pointed, but slightly compressed at the sides, as seen in Fig. 47; shell thick and of a dull yellowish color; kernel moderately large, as shown across section of nut in Fig. 48, but much smaller in proportion to the size of the nut than in the two preceding species, but it is sweet, well flavored, and easily removed from the shell when cracked. The very large size of these nuts makes them a favorite, especially where the pecan and the true shellbarks are not plentiful. These nuts were formerly known as the Springfield or Gloucester nut. A very large tree, sixty to eighty feet high, and two to four feet in diameter, with thick, scaly bark, the scales somewhat thicker than in the common shellbark hickory of the Atlantic States. A rare tree, except in the valleys west of the Alleghanies, although it is reported to have been found in Chester county, Pennsylvania, and thence west to southern Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, eastern Kansas, and the Indian Territory. Plentiful in the bottom lands along the Ohio, Mississippi and lower Missouri. Elliott, in "Botany of South Carolina and Georgia" (1824), says it is rare in the low country of Carolina, but he does not say that it is found plentiful anywhere in the South. That he was sometimes in doubt in regard to the identification of this and other species may be inferred from his remark, namely: "The greater part of our hickories resemble each other so closely in their leaves and vary so much in their fruit that it is very difficult to discriminate the species."

It is this difficulty of identification which has led to so much confusion in the application of the specific names, for the earlier botanists rarely had an opportunity of a close and careful examination of the trees or other plants which they attempted to describe. In relation to the species under consideration, we find that the specific name of sulcata, so long in use, was adopted by Nuttall, from some earlier or contemporaneous author,—a system he followed with all the different species of the hickory, but without, in some instances, any discrimination or regard to their adaptation or validity. If there was anything to show that Willdenow (1796) had this Western shellbark in mind, or that he or his correspondents in this country had ever seen or collected it, then we might adopt the name of sulcata as the original and true one; but in the absence of such information, with a full and accurate description of the species and its habitats by Michaux, under the name of laciniosa, I think, in common justice to one of the most eminent dendrologists who ever visited this country, the name given should stand as the true one for this species. See Michaux, "North American Sylva," Vol. I, p. 128.

Synonyms:

Juglans sulcata (?), Willdenow, 1796.
Juglans laciniosa, Michaux, 1810.
Carya sulcata, Nuttall, 1818.
Carya cordiformis, Koch, Dendrologie.

The three preceding species are probably the only ones worthy of propagation for their fruit, or that have and are likely to yield varieties of any considerable economic value; but as it is important that the nut culturist should know the materials he is using, and whether they be of the best or otherwise, I shall admit all the species, without regard to their merits or value for cultivation.

Mocker nut, bull nut, big-bud hickory, king nut, white-heart hickory, etc. (Hicoria tomentosa. Michaux).—Leaflets mostly seven, occasionally nine, large, oblong-obovate, rather long pointed, slightly serrate, smooth on both sides while young, becoming roughish downy underneath when fully developed in summer; leaf-stalks and catkins also somewhat downy. Fruit medium to very large, round or ovoid, with a very thick woody husk, which splits nearly or quite down to the base, but usually falling with the enclosed nut entire, or bursting open as they strike the ground. Nut very thick shelled, smooth, or strongly four to six angled, white at first, but becoming a dull brown when exposed to the light. The kernel is sweet, but so small and firmly imbedded in the thick shell that it is only to be removed in minute sections, but this is successfully accomplished by the squirrels, who often throw down the entire crop from large trees before the shells harden, and then pack them away in the ground, in old logs, and under the leaves, where they will not dry for some weeks or months later. An exceedingly variable species, especially in the size and form of the nuts; on some trees they are scarcely an inch in diameter, while on others they are nearly or quite two inches, but always with such a thick, hard shell as to be nearly worthless for their meats. The largest of these nuts I have ever seen grow in central and western New York, where they are called "King" or "Bull" nuts.

The trees grow to a very large size, or from sixty to eighty feet high, and two to three feet in diameter, with a thick, deeply furrowed bark, not scaly. The wood is white, heavy, tough, and nearly as valuable as the common shellbark hickory. The terminal buds, and especially those on the young seedlings and suckers springing up in clearings, are very large, round, short, and covered with brownish scales, hence one of the local names of big-bud hickory.

A widely distributed species, or from the valley of the St. Lawrence to Florida, and along the great lakes to Nebraska, and thence southward to Texas. Unlike most of the other hickories, this species seems to prefer thin soils, rocky sandstone ridges, and here in New Jersey almost disappearing in the rich bottom lands along our creeks and rivers; at least, this is its habit here in the northern part of the State.

Synonyms:

Juglans alba (?), Linn., 1754.
Juglans tomentosa, Michaux, 1810.
Carya tomentosa, Nuttall, 1818.
Carya tomentosa var. maxima, Nuttall.
Carya alba, Koch, Dendrologie.

Pignut, hognut, brown hickory, black hickory, switch-bud hickory (Hicoria glabra. Miller).—Leaflets five to seven, mostly seven (Fig. 49), ovate-lanceolate, serrate, smooth; fruit pear-shaped or roundish-obovate; husk very thin, splitting about half way down into four sections or valves, these usually remaining attached to the nut for some time after falling, in fact, may often be found within the husk all through the winter; shell of nut moderately thin but tough, with a small, bitterish-sweet kernel. A large, rather slender tree in similar and same localities as the last, with a close bark but not so deeply furrowed as in the mocker nut (H. tomentosa). Of no special value except as a timber tree, and its slow growth makes it less deserving of attention than those species that bear large and edible nuts.

Synonyms:

Juglans glabra, Miller, 1768.
Juglans alba acuminata, Marshall, 1785.
Juglans obcordata, Lamarck.
Juglans porcina, Michaux.
Juglans pyriformis, Muhlenberg.
Juglans porcina, var. obcordata, Pursh.
Juglans porcina, var. pyriformis, Pursh.
Carya porcina, Nuttall.
Carya glabra, Torrey.
Carya amara, var. porcina, Darby.