atter the pecan and other hickories. With the exception of the
Shellbark hickory, _Hicoria ovata_ Britton, and the Big shellbark,
_Hicoria laciniosa_ Sargent, the pecan is the only one of the genus
worthy of cultivation.

_Family._ Juglandaceae Lindl. Nat. Syst. Ed. 2, 180. 1836. Trees with
alternate pinnate leaves and monoecious bracted flowers. Staminate
flowers in long, drooping catkins, provided with three or more stamens
and occasionally with an irregular-lobed perianth adnate to the bractlet
and a rudimentary ovary. Anthers erect, with short filaments,
two-celled; dehiscent longitudinally. Pistillate flowers bracted with a
three to five, normally four-lobed calyx and sometimes with petals.
Ovule solitary, erect, styles two, stigmatic along the inner surface.
Fruit a bony nut, incompletely two to four-celled. Seed large, two to
four-lobed, cotyledons corrugated, oily, without endosperm.

_Genus._ Hicoria Raf. Med. Rep. (II) 5:352. 1808. Trees, with close or
scaly bark, odd-pinnate leaves and serrate leaflets. Staminate flowers
in slender drooping catkins, borne in groups of three, occasionally on
the new shoots, but usually from buds just back of the terminal buds on
last year's shoots, calyx naked, adherent to the bract, unequally
two-third lobed or cleft; stamens with short filaments, three to ten in
number. Pistillate flowers, two to eight, produced on a terminal
peduncle, calyx four-parted, petals none, styles two to four, short,
papillose. Fruit oblong, or obovoid, the husk separating into four
parts; nut smooth or angled, bony, incompletely two to four-celled. Seed
oily, sweet, edible or bitter and astringent. Natives of eastern North
America and Mexico.

_Species._ H. Pecan (Marsh.) Britton. Bull. Torr. Club, 15:282. 1888.
Pecan, Illinois nut, a large tree, 75 to 170 feet in height and a
diameter reaching 6 feet, with rough-broken bark. Young twigs and leaves
pubescent, later nearly or quite glabrous; leaflets seven to fifteen,
falcate, oblong--lanceolate, sharp-pointed, serrate, green and bright
above, lighter below; staminate catkins five to six inches long, sessile
or nearly so, sometimes borne near the base on the young shoots but
usually from the uppermost lateral buds on last year's shoots;
pistillate flowers terminal on shoots of the current season's growth,
produced singly or in clusters of two to nine; fruit oblong cylindrical;
husk four-valved; nut 3/4 to 2-1/2 inches in greatest diameter,
round