Distribution. Low hills and the neighborhood of streams and swamps in rich deep moderately moist soil; southern Maine to the valley of the St. Lawrence River near Montreal, along the northern shores of Lakes Erie and Ontario to central Michigan, central Wisconsin, southeastern Minnesota, eastern Iowa and southeastern Nebraska, and southward to western Florida, northern Alabama and Mississippi, and to eastern Kansas, eastern Oklahoma, and eastern Texas; ranging further north than other Hickories with the exception of _C. cordiformis_; and in the Carolinas ascending to 3000° above the sea in valleys on the western slope of the Blue Ridge. Variable in the size and shape of the nut and in the character and amount of pubescence on the leaves and branchlets. These varieties are distinguished: var. _Nuttallii_ Sarg., with nuts rounded, obcordate or rarely pointed at apex, rounded or abruptly pointed at base, much compressed, and only about ⅗′ long and ⅖′—½′ broad; not rare and widely distributed northward. Var. _complanata_ Sarg., with oblong-obovoid fruit and broadly obovoid much compressed slightly angled nuts cuneate at base and rounded, truncate or slightly obcordate at apex; a single tree on the Drushel Farm near Mt. Hope, Holmes County, Ohio. Var. _ellipsoidalis_ Sarg., with ellipsoidal much compressed nuts abruptly long-pointed at apex, and slender reddish branchlets; near Hannibal, Marion County, and Oakwood, Rolles County, northeastern Missouri, and Indian River, Lewis County, and near Rochester, Munroe County, New York. Var. _pubescens_ Sarg., differing in the dense pubescence of pale fascicled hairs on the young branchlets, and on the petioles, rachis and under surface of the leaflets; bottoms of the Savannah River, Calhoun Falls, Abbeville County, South Carolina, bottom of Little River, Walker County, Georgia, Chattanooga Creek, Hamilton County, Tennessee, Valley Head, DeKalb County, Alabama, and Columbus, Lowndes County, Starkville, Oktibbeha County, and Brookville, Noxubee County, Mississippi. More distinct is Carya ovata var. fraxinifolia Sarg. [Illustration: Fig. 175] Leaves 7′—9′ long, with slender glabrous or puberulous petioles and 5 lanceolate to slightly oblanceolate acuminate finely serrate leaflets glabrous except on the under side of the midrib, the terminal leaflet 4′—7′ long and 1′—1½′ wide, the lateral sessile, unsymmetrical at base, those of the upper pair often larger than the terminal leaflet, those of the lower pair 2′—2½′ long and 1′—1¼′ wide. Flowers as in the species. Fruit obovoid, usually rounded at apex, compressed, about 1¼′ long, the husk splitting freely to the base, ⅙′—⅕′ in thickness; nut much compressed, rounded at the ends, prominently angled. A large tree with bark separating in long loose plates, and slender reddish glabrous or puberulous branchlets.