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Walnuts and the Hickories — Part 5

We have been setting fuel down as the last of a tree's uses. Naturally, burning is the end of things, and it is often an ignoble end. But fire is one of the great elemental forces in nature. A great conflagration is magnificent; a smouldering rubbish heap is not. Some kinds of wood sputter peevishly in burning. The most splendid wood fire is made of seasoned hickory. Wake up the old backlog, charred by half a hundred fires. Lay in the kindling and feed the growing flames at last with shagbark cordwood. There is no flame so brilliant as this; no wood burns with a more fervent heat. No wonder "the great throat of the chimney laughs." The passing of hickory wood in flames back to its primal elements is the fitting end of a noble tree.

The North Carolina Shagbark (H. Carolinae-septentrionalis, Ashe) differs from the preceding species in its smaller size and slenderer habit throughout. The twigs are dark red and slender and the leaflets are small, lanceolate, with long, tapering points. The buds are scarcely 1/4 inch long, thin inner scales lengthening to 1 to 2 inches and becoming bright yellow as they unfold. The little nuts have thin shells and the kernels are sweet. The bark of this tree is much like its more burly cousins. The strips are equally tough and persistent, but not quite so large.

The range of this shagbark covers the limestone uplands of eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina, and extends south along river bottoms into Georgia and central Alabama.

Mockernut, Big Bud Hickory (Hicoria alba, Britt.)--A slender, tall, pyramidal tree, 50 to 80 feet high. Bark grey, thick, hard, close, rough, scaly; twigs pubescent, resinous, dotted. Wood dark brown (sap wood white), heavy, hard, strong, elastic, close. Buds: terminal ones large, ovate; outer scales ovate, acute, often keeled, falling in autumn; lateral buds small, yellowish brown. Leaves alternate, 15 to 20 inches long, of 7 to 9 leaflets, sessile, except end one, serrate, oblong-lanceolate, downy, yellow-green, russet or yellow in fall; petiole downy, swollen, large. Flowers: staminate in catkins 4 to 8 inches long, hairy; pistillate 2 to 3 on terminal spike, May. Fruit, October , 1 to 3 nuts, globose or oblong, often long-pointed; 1 1/2 to 2 inches long, red-brown, strong scented; sutures opening to middle or nearly to base; nut globular, 4-ridged near top, thick shelled; kernel small, sweet, edible; often replaced by spongy mass. Preferred habitat, rich soil, on hillsides, North; near bogs and swamps South. Distribution, Ontario to Florida; west to Kansas and Texas. Uses: Lumber confused with shellbark hickory; nuts edible, but small, and very thick shelled. Tree planted for ornament and shade.

The mockernut has downy buds in winter--this alone will distinguish it from the two smooth-budded shellbarks, which have buds even larger than this species. The outer scales are almost black on the buds of H. ovata and H. laciniosa; on H. alba they are yellowish, for the darker outer scales fall early in autumn. The bark of the mockernut looks more like that of an ash than a hickory. It is broken by shallow fissures into intersecting ridges, and is coated with silvery scales. The branches are stout and curved, giving the tree in winter an expression of strength and grace.

The heart wood is dark brown, but the white sap wood largely predominates, to the advantage of the lumber. The elasticity of hickory wood is somewhat lost in the mature heart wood, so sap wood is best. For this reason second-growth hickory, which is almost all sap wood, is especially valuable. The names alba and white heart both refer to the colour of the sap wood.

The nut is truly a mockery to anyone who considers his thumbs. The husk is thick and stubbornly adherent at the base. The shell is almost invulnerable. When at last it is shattered by a blow, the kernel, though sweet, is small, and poorly repays the trouble. Oftentimes there is no kernel at all.

The mockernut is the commonest hickory tree in the South. It is believed to hybridise with the pecan, possibly with H. ovata and some varieties of H. glabra. The parentage of trees intermediate between one species and another can only be surmised; never proved. If artificial crossing produces duplicates of the questionable trees, then surmises may be considered well founded.

Nutmeg Hickory (H. myristicaeformis, Britt.)--A tall, straight tree, with narrow, open head, 80 to 100 feet high; branches stout, spreading. Bark reddish brown, broken into small, scaly plates; branchlets with golden scales. Wood heavy, hard, tough, light brown. Buds brownish, silky, hairy, small. Leaves 7 to 11 inches long, odd pinnate, of 5 to 11 leaflets, ovate-lanceolate to oblong-obovate, thin, firm, dark green, lustrous, silvery white beneath, sometimes pubescent; change to bronze in autumn. Flowers: staminate in catkins, 3 to 4 inches long, brownish pubescent, densely flowered, in threes; pistillate terminal, greenish, solitary or few, scurfy pubescent. Fruit small, with sweet kernel, in very thick shell, smooth, rounded, pointed at both ends, in thin, scurfy, hairy, 4-valved husk, with winged sutures that open almost to base at maturity. Preferred habitat, rich, moist soil of swamps, or river banks; sometimes dryer hillsides. Distribution, coast regions of South Carolina, central Carolina, central Alabama and Mississippi, southern Arkansas. Uses: Cultivated sparingly in Eastern States. Beautiful ornamental tree. Locally used as fuel and lumber.