s, at
a considerable distance from another pollen bearing shagbark tree, will
bear considerable quantities of nuts indicating self fertility.

FRUIT--The husk of the shagbark is extremely variable in size, shape,
thickness and opening habits. In general the husk consists of 4 segments
which split along 4 sutures and fall apart at maturity dropping the nut
to the ground. In many cases the husk falls to the ground with the nut
and does not break apart until it reaches the ground. A few of the trees
examined had husks which were not quite deciduous to the base and were
retained on the tree until after the nut had been released. One tree
among the 158 examined consistently had a 5 parted husk.

The husks varied considerably in thickness, the dried measurements
ranging from 1/8 to 1/2 inch with the bulk of the measurements averaging
around 1/4" thick. Two trees had husks so thin as to be more typical of
red hickory while only 6 trees had husks 1/2 inch thick or more.

The overall shape of the husk around the nut ranged from globose (Fig.
5a) to ovoid (Fig. 5b) to obovate (Fig. 5c).

It would seem that the shape of the nut enclosed within the husk might
be predetermined by examination of the husk itself. The obovate husk
shape could most frequently be depended on to produce either elliptical
or obovate nuts but this was not an absolute certainty. The thickness of
the husk effectively concealed the true shape of the nut beneath; the
thinnest husks most nearly conforming to the true nut shape.

The size of the mature shagbark hickory nut and husk ranged from as
small as one inch in a tree which had a seed barely 3/8" wide to as
large as 2-1/4 inches. The size of husk and nut is variable and adjacent
trees which may have developed from the same parent seldom have similar
nuts in the area examined.

The nut itself exhibited the greatest variability of all features
examined on the test trees. These trees exhibited striking
dissimilarities in:

(1) nut size
(2) nut shape
(3) shell color
(4) thickness of shell
(5) sweetness or palatability of nutmeat.

One tree was discovered with a nut which might have caused a taxonomist
to coin the name _Carya ovata_ var. _microcarpa_ due to the very small
dimensions of about 3/8 x 3/8 x 3/4 inches in width, thickness and
depth. Even the squirrels of the area did not feel that this tree
deserved their attention The largest nut
obtained had overall dimensions of 1 x 3/4