ctive names, Carya aquatica
being called water hickory and Carya texana being called bitter pecan.
By making fixed points in nomenclature in this way we may head off the
confusion which will become worse confounded as the interest in
hickories becomes rapidly enlarged, if our committee on nomenclature
does not take some decisive step.

Concerning Latin nomenclature, we have further troubles for settlement.
Hicoria is the oldest generic name and naturally should have priority
but the Vienna Congress of Botanists adopted Carya. So far so good (or
bad). Now comes our trouble in giving specific and varietal names. The
binomial is clearly applicable enough for species, Carya pecan, for
example, but when we come to varieties of the pecan there are two kinds
of varieties to be considered, those by environment and those by
hybridization. In cases of natural variation we are still within
accepted resources in nomenclature by saying for example, Carya pecan,
var, Stuartii. When naming hybrid varieties, however, I would suggest
that in advance of the abbreviation "var", we place the abbreviation
"hyb." thus reading for Brown's pecan, "Carya pecan, hyb. var. Brownii,"
instead of "Carya Brownii," which latter binomial would throw it among
the species. In view of the fact that we are to have in the future
hundreds of named hybrids, it seems to me that we must adopt some such
definite method for convenience promptly. This method of naming, relates
to convenience and is applied to the most evident parent. As a matter of
fact, in horticultural circles we are doing precisely that sort of
thing, speaking, for example, of "Brown's pecan" meaning a nut which we
recognize as being a hybrid, brought to attention by Brown but with the
pecan as parent most strongly in evidence.

When I was a boy, the only hickory nuts of any sort available, were
those collected from wild trees. The popular boy was one who knew of
some trees which furnished the best nuts and who did not keep the news
to himself. The squirrels knew the best nuts as well as the boys did and
they would go past many hickory trees along fences and groves in order
to congregate in the ones which had the nuts with the thinnest shells
and plumpest meats of best quality. In the early morning hours I have
seen several squirrels in one particularly good hickory nut tree and not
a single squirrel in a tree completely filled with nuts, though its
branches touches those of the first one. Men