of one hundred feet, and its trunk is
from four to six feet in diameter. The bark is dark brown with deep
vertical grooves and its surface is broken with thick scales. The leaves
are compound, growing on a middle stem which is sometimes two feet long.
Each leaflet is a narrow oval, sharply pointed at the end, and usually
about three inches long. The nuts require frost to ripen them.

=Butternut=

While the _butternut-tree_ is much like the walnut in general
appearance, it does not grow as large. The nuts are different in shape
and in flavor, and the leaflets are hairy instead of smooth. The
butternut does not grow as far north as the walnut, but is often found
side by side with the walnut in the Middle States. The green outer
covering of the nut is oblong and sticky on the surface, and, like the
walnut, will stain the hands. The shell is hard, brown, oblong, and
pointed at one end. It is deeply grooved. The flavor is rich but the nut
being oily soon becomes rancid.

=Hickory-Nuts=

In gathering hickory-nuts you must be able to distinguish between the
edible variety and others that are fair on the outside but bitter
within. There are nine varieties of hickory-nut trees, and in general
appearance they are alike. All have compound leaves and the leaflets are
larger and fewer to the stem than the walnut, usually numbering from
five to eleven. The nuts grow in small clusters as a rule, often in
pairs, and the outer husk separates when ripe into four pieces, allowing
the nut to drop out clean and dry. The full-grown tree is of good size
and is found almost everywhere in the United States.

=Shellbark. Shagbark=

The _shellbark_ or shagbark hickory-nut is one of the best. The flavor,
as every one knows, is sweet and pleasant. It is the bark of the tree
that gives it the name of shagbark, for it separates into long, ragged
strips several inches wide which generally hold to the trunk at the
middle and give it an unkempt, shaggy appearance.

=Mockernut=

The _mockernut_ is the hickory-nut with a dark, brownish-colored shell,
hard and thick and not easily cracked. It is called the mockernut
because while the nut is large, usually larger than the shellbark, the
kernel is very small and difficult to take out of the thick shell.

=Pignut=

I will italicize the _pignut_ because, though I have never eaten it, I
once tried to, and the first taste was all-sufficient. Some writers tell
us that the flavor is sweet or