The _bark_ of the trunk is rougher than other hickories, light gray and
separating into thick plates which are only slightly attached to the
tree. The terminal _winter buds_ are egg-shaped, the outer bud-scales
having narrow tips.
The _leaves_ are alternate, compound, from 8 to 15 inches long, and
composed of 5, rarely 7 obovate to ovate leaflets. The twigs are smooth
or clothed with short hairs.
The _fruit_ is borne singly or in pairs and is globular. The husk is
thick and deeply grooved at the seams. The nut is much compressed and
pale, the shell thick, and the kernel sweet. The flowers are of two
kinds, opening after the leaves have attained nearly their full size.
The _wood_ is heavy, hard, tough and strong; it is white largely in the
manufacture of agricultural implements and tool handles, and the
building of carriages and wagons. For fuel the hickories are the most
satisfactory of our native trees.
The big shell bark or king-nut hickory, _Carya laciniosa_ (Michx. f.)
Loud., becomes a tall tree on the rich bottom lands in the southern
half of Illinois. It resembles the shag-bark hickory but the leaves
are longer with 7 to 9 leaflets, and the nuts are 2 inches long with a
thick bony shell and a sweet kernel.
+MOCKERNUT HICKORY+ _Carya tomentosa_ Nutt.
THE mockernut, or white hickory, is common on well-drained soils
throughout the State. It is a tall, short-limbed tree often 60 feet high
and 1 to 2 feet in diameter.
[Illustration: MOCKERNUT HICKORY