The _bark_ on the trunk is granite-gray, faintly tinged with yellow and
smoother than in most of the hickories, yet broken into thin plate-like
scales. The _winter buds_ are compressed, scurfy, and of a bright yellow
color.
The _leaves_ are alternate, compound, from 6 to 10 inches long, and
composed of from 7 to 11 leaflets. The individual leaflets are smaller
and more slender than those of the other hickories.
The _flowers_ are of two kinds on the same tree; the staminate in long
pendulous green catkins, the pistillate in 2 to 5 flowered spikes,
1/2 inch long, brown-hairy. The _fruit_ is about 1 inch long and
thin-husked, while the nut is usually thin-shelled and brittle, and the
kernel very bitter.
The _wood_ is hard, strong and heavy, reddish-brown in color. From this
last fact it gets its local name of red hickory. It is said to be
somewhat inferior to the other hickories, but is used for the same
purposes.
+PECAN+ _Carya illinoensis_ (Wang.) K. Koch
(_Carya pecan_ (Marsh.) E. & G.)
THE pecan is a river-bottom tree found in southern Illinois extending
its range northward to Adams, Peoria, Fayette and Lawrence counties. The
tree is the largest of the hickories, attaining heights of over 100 feet
and, when in the open, forming a large rounded top of symmetrical shape.
It makes an excellent shade tree and is also planted in orchards for its
nuts. The outer _bark_ is rough, hard, tight, but broken into scales; on
the limbs, it is smooth at first but later tends to scale or divide as
the bark grows old.
[Illustration: PECAN