NUTMEG HICKORY (Hicoria myristicaformis, Britt.). 80 to 100 feet. Tall, straight tree with narrow, open head of stout branches, ending in slender twigs coated with shining golden scales. Bark brown, irregularly broken into thin, close scales. Wood light brown, very strong, tough, hard, used for lumber and fuel. Leaves 7 to 15 inches long, of 5 to 11 leaflets, saw-toothed, thin, dark green above, silvery white and lustrous beneath, with pale, scurfy midribs, turning in autumn to bronzy brown. Flowers scurfy pubescent, brown, catkins in
l's, axillary; pistil clusters terminal, few-flowered. Fruit solitary, rounded nut, 1 inch long, pointed at both ends, in thin, scurfy husk with 4-winged sutures that open almost to the base; kernel sweet, small, brown, in thick shell. Dist.: Rich, moist river banks and swamps, South Carolina coast westward to central Mississippi and southern Arkansas. Beau. tiful ornamental tree, hardy in Washington, D. C.