Staminate catkins, scurfy-pubescent, pedunculate in threes at the base of the current year's shoot. Fruit, single or in pairs, very variable in size and shape; husk thin, reddish brown, glandular, opening only at the apex or splitting to the middle or to near the base; nut obscurely four-angled; seed small, light brown, poor in flavour.
Carya microcarpa, Nuttall[1] (Hicoria microcarpa, Britton[2]), appears to be only distinguished by the nuts, which are very small, compressed and globular. It is impossible to say whether it is in cultivation, as all the hickories in England produce smaller nuts than they do in America. This form is called by Sargent,[3] var. odorata, a misleading name, as the tree has apparently no marked odour either in the foliage or in the fruit. (A.H.)
The pignut, which grows usually on dry ridges and hillsides, has a most extensive distribution, ranging from Southern Ontario and Southern Maine in the north to Florida and Mississippi in the south, and extending westward to Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas.
This species of hickory[4] seems to succeed fairly well in England, though we know of very few trees. The best is at Kew, where there is a fine tree near the Temperate House (Plate 172), which is, however, becoming stag-headed. It measured, in 1907, 77 feet by 6 feet. It produces fruit abundantly, but the seed, so far as we have observed, is infertile.
Another tree is growing at Leny, near Callander, Perthshire. Though in a somewhat exposed situation and at an elevation of several hundred feet, it had a stem 3 feet 4 inches in girth and might have been 50 feet high before the leading shoot was broken. (H.J.E.)
CARYA SULCATA, Big Shellbark, Kingnut
- Carya sulcata, Nuttall, Gen. Am. ii. 221 (1818); Loudon, Arb. et Frut, Brit. iii. 1448 (1838).
- Carya pubescens, Sweet, Hort. Brit. 97 (1827).
- Carya cordiformis, Koch, Dendr. i. 597 (1869).
- Carya laciniosa, Schneider, ex Sargent in Bot. Gazette, xliv. 226 (1907).
- Juglans laciniosa, Michaux, f., Hist. Arb. Amer. i. 199 (1810).
- Juglans sulcata, Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. ii. 637 (1814).
- Hicoria laciniosa, Sargent, Silva N. Amer. vii. 157, tt. 348, 349 (1895), and Trees N. Amer. 141 (1905).
A tree attaining in America 120 feet in height and 9 feet in girth. Bark grey, ultimately separating in plates, which sometimes remain for many years hanging on the trunk. Terminal buds, ovoid, obtuse, ¾ to 1 inch long, composed of ten to twelve imbricated scales; outer scales not deciduous in winter, dark brown, ovate, keeled, pointed, tomentose, with scattered glands; inner scales silky pubescent,
- ↑ Gen. Am. ii. 221 (1818).
- ↑ Bull. Torrey Bot. Club, xv. 283 (1888).
- ↑ Silva, loc. cit. This varietal name is adopted by Sargent, as the tree appears to have been first described by Marshall, in Arb. Am. 68 (1785) as Juglans alba odorata.
- ↑ The date of introduction is uncertain. Loudon states that in 1838 there were plants in the Hackney Arboretum.
