[FIG. 45]. FOURTEEN YEARS OLD PECAN TREE IN MISSISSIPPI.
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.
