SHAG-BARK HICKORY
Leaf, one-third natural size. Twig, one-half natural size.
The bark of the trunk is rougher than other hickories, light gray and separating into thick plates which are only slightly attached to the tree. The terminal winter buds are egg-shaped, the outer bud-scales having narrow tips.
The leaves are alternate, compound, from 8 to 15 inches long, and composed of 5, rarely 7 obovate to ovate leaflets. The twigs are smooth or clothed with short hairs.
The fruit is borne singly or in pairs and is globular. The husk is thick and deeply grooved at the seams. The nut is much compressed and pale, the shell thick, and the kernel sweet. The flowers are of two kinds, opening after the leaves have attained nearly their full size.
The wood is heavy, hard, tough and strong; it is white largely in the manufacture of agricultural implements and tool handles, and the building of carriages and wagons. For fuel the hickories are the most satisfactory of our native trees.
The big shell bark or king-nut hickory, Carya laciniosa (Michx. f.) Loud., becomes a tall tree on the rich bottom lands in the southern half of Illinois. It resembles the shag-bark hickory but the leaves are longer with 7 to 9 leaflets, and the nuts are 2 inches long with a thick bony shell and a sweet kernel.
