Fig. 99.
Buckeye Hickory
This tree is well known through the Ohio valley, where it is very common, Ohio being called the Buckeye State. The nuts are not edible, but the wood is very tough and strong and is used extensively in making farm implements.
Compare the leaf of the buckeye and the hickory shown in [Fig. 99]. Both leaves are compound, and each has five leaflets, but they are quite different, because the hickory leaflets are arranged on opposite sides of the leaf-stalk instead of radiating from one point.
There are several varieties of hickory, including the shagbark, or shellbark, the pignut, and pecan.
The name shagbark hickory is taken from the peculiar appearance of the bark, which hangs in loose pieces nearly a foot long and gives the tree a very shaggy effect. Shellbark is another common name for this tree.
The nut which this tree bears is hard and thick, but the kernel is very sweet, and is considered by some superior to all other hickory nuts.
The pignut hickory is so called because the nuts in some parts of the country are used to feed the pigs. It is also called broom hickory. The nuts are small and become bitter after having lain awhile. The wood, however, like all the hickories, is valuable, being hard and tough. There is a difference between strength and toughness. Oak is strong, but not tough. Hickory is both hard and tough. A tough wood is one which will stand bending without breaking. A wood which will bend easily but is not strong cannot be called tough. It must be both strong and elastic, and hickory has both of these qualities.