ground, reaching greater dimensions southward. The
trunk, tapering gradually to the point of branching, develops a
capacious, spreading head, usually widest near the top, with lively
green, finely cut foliage of great beauty, turning to a rich orange in
autumn. Easily recognized in winter by its flat, yellowish buds.

=Bark.=--Bark of trunk gray, close, smooth, rarely flaking off in thin
plates; branches and branchlets smooth; leaf-scars prominent; season's
shoots yellow, smooth, yellow-dotted.

=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Terminal buds long, yellow, flattish, often
scythe-shaped, pointed, with a granulated surface; lateral buds much
smaller, often ovate or rounded, pointed. Leaves pinnately compound,
alternate, 12-15 inches long; rachis somewhat enlarged at base; stipules
none; leaflets 5-11, opposite, 5-6 inches long, 1-2 inches wide, bright
green and smooth above, paler and smooth or somewhat downy beneath,
turning to orange yellow in autumn; outline lanceolate, or narrowly oval
to oblong-obovate, serrate; apex taper-pointed to scarcely acute; base
obtuse or rounded except that of the terminal leaflet, which is acute;
sessile and inequilateral, except in terminal leaflet, which has a short
stem and is equal-sided; sometimes scarcely distinguishable from the
leaves of _C. porcina_; often decreasing regularly in size from the
upper to the lower pair.

=Inflorescence.=--May. Sterile and fertile flowers on the same tree,
appearing when the leaves are fully grown,--sterile at the base of the
season's shoots, or sometimes from the lateral buds of the preceding
season, in slender, pendulous catkins, 3-4 inches long, usually in
threes, branching umbel-like from a common peduncle; scale 3-lobed,
hairy-glandular, middle lobe about the same length as the other two but
narrower, considerably longer toward the end of the catkin; stamens
mostly 5, anthers bearded at the tip: fertile flowers on peduncles at
the end of the season's shoots; calyx 4-lobed, pubescent, adherent to
the ovary; corolla none; stigmas 2.

=Fruit.=--October. Single or in twos or threes at the ends of the
branchlets, abundant, usually rather small, about 1 inch long, the width
greater than the length; occasionally larger and somewhat pear-shaped:
husk separating about to the middle into four segments, with sutures
prominently winged at the top or almost to the base, or nearly wingless:
nut usually thin-shelled: kernel white, sweetish at first, at length
bi