Distribution.—Southwestern Ontario south to Alabama and west to Louisiana, Nebraska and Iowa. Found throughout Indiana, except there are as yet no records from the extreme northwest counties. It is frequent to common in moist rich woods, or in river bottoms which is its favorite habitat. It is usually associated with the shellbark hickory where it grows in moist situations. Sometimes in the river bottoms it grows in situations too wet for the shellbark hickory. In the lower Wabash bottoms it becomes a common tree.
Remarks.—This hickory is also known as the big scaly-bark hickory and hard-head hickory. The nuts are an article of commerce and by some are preferred to the shellbark hickory although the nuts are hard to crack. This objection is easily overcome by wetting the nuts, and drying them by using heat which cracks the shell, making them easy to crack.
5. Carya álba (Linnæus) K. Koch. White Hickory. [Plate 26.] Medium sized tall trees up to 10 dm. in diameter; bark tight, of two types, one light colored, thin and fissured into a network. This form has been seen only in the river bottoms of the southwestern part of the State. The common type of bark is thick, with thick ridges, dark but on the older trees it weathers to a light gray and becomes thickly covered with lichens; terminal twigs of branches at end of season stout, 3.5-7 mm. in diameter near the tip, densely hairy at first and remaining hairy throughout the season or becoming almost glabrous, reddish-brown; terminal bud large, ovate, 10-20 mm. long; ordinary leaves 2-4 dm. long, the rachis and under side of leaflets densely hairy when they unfold, remaining pubescent until maturity; leaflets 5-9, prevailing number 7, long-oval, ovate-lanceolate, or obovate; fruit usually globose, more rarely short elliptic, ovate or obovoid, the husk rather tardily opening to nearly the base, or only checking open at the top; dried husk 3-8 mm. thick; nut variable in shape, little compressed, somewhat globose, a little longer than wide, more rarely wider than long or short elliptic, usually 2.5-3.5 cm. long, generally rounded at the base and short-pointed at the apex, more rarely pointed at the base and long pointed at the apex, (one specimen is at hand that is almost a square box), usually with 4-6 angles, on some forms obscure; shell thick; kernel very small, sweet; wood and uses same as shellbark hickory.
CARYA ALBA (Linnæus) K. Koch. White Hickory. (× 1/2.)
The nuts are from different trees to show variation.
Distribution.—Southwestern Ontario south to the Gulf and west to Texas, Missouri and Iowa. Found throughout Indiana, except there are no records from the extreme northwestern counties. This species except in the lower Wabash Valley is confined to the uplands. It is rather a rare tree in northern Indiana, but becomes more or less frequent in the western part of the State south of the Wabash River and more or less frequent to common on the hills in all of the State south of Marion County. It is most abundant in the unglaciated area.