NOTES TAKEN ON AN EXCURSION TO MERRIBROOKE, THE COUNTRY PLACE OF DR. ROBERT T. MORRIS, AT STAMFORD, CONN., SEPTEMBER 5, 1917.
Dr. Morris Conducting the Party.
(1) Taylor shagbark hickory tree, overhanging the entrance-gate. A tree remarkable for annual bearing and for nuts of high quality, thin shell, large size, and excellent cleavage. Among hundreds of hickories examined, many of them in response to prize offers, this tree at the entrance furnishes one of the very best nuts of the lot.
(2) Buckley hickory (Hicoria Buckleyi) from Texas. Supposed not to be hardy in this latitude. Perfectly hardy, but not growing as rapidly as it does at home. Very large roundish thick shelled nut with a kernel of good quality if you can get it. Kernel has a peculiar but agreeable fragrance.
(3) Another southern species, the North Carolina hickory (Hicoria Carolinae-septentrionalis). Note the small, pointed, dark colored buds and beautiful foliage. The tree is perfectly hardy in Connecticut. This shagbark bears a small thin shelled nut of high-quality and it will be particularly desirable for table purposes. The tree grows thriftly in Connecticut.
(4) Carolina hickory. Grafted on native shagbark.
(5) A group of Korean nut pines (Pinus Koraensis). Raised from seed and now six years of age. One of the valuable food supply pines of northern Asia. Like most eastern Asiatic trees the species does well in eastern North America.
(6) A central Asian prune (Prunus Armeniaca). Without value for the fleshy part of the drupe, but with a nut like that of the apricot, highly prized for its kernel. The tree is hardy and thrifty, but rather vulnerable to a variety of blights belonging to Prunus.
(7) An ordinary black walnut grafted to the Lutz variety. A very large nut with good cleavage, good color and good quality.
(8) Alder-leaved chestnut (Castanea alnifolia) from central Georgia. One of the most beautiful of the American chestnuts, with more or less of the trailing habit, running over the ground like the juniper, and apparently not subject to blight. In Georgia it is an evergreen, but in Connecticut it is deciduous, although sometimes a few green leaves are found in the early spring if they have been covered by snow or by loose dead leaves during the winter. The nut is of high quality and fair size. There are a number of hybrids between this and other chestnuts at Merribrooke, but not bearing as yet.