The mockernut is one of the most interesting of the hickories in winter. Its bark has a peculiar wavy appearance, entirely unlike any other member of the family. The hollows are close together in sinuous, shallow furrows, and the bark is so smooth over these fissures that it looks as if the ridges were trying to grow over and close up the hollows,—the effect is that of a thin, silk veil drawn over the trunk. The twigs are large and heavily moulded, with large oval buds, but they produce a pleasing effect of strength, instead of seeming ugly and coarse, like those of the horsechestnut. The curves and irregularities the stem takes in growing, and the general alternate plan of branching save the mockernut from being rigid and upright like the horsechestnut. The mockernut is easily distinguished from every other hickory by its peculiar bark, its smooth, large buds, and coarse stems. [Illustration: MOCKERNUT HICKORY _Hicoria alba_ Page 52 ] Its wood is used for the same purposes as that of the shagbark and is equally valuable. Its nut is large and sweet, and if the tree were put under cultivation, it would probably equal that of the shagbark in commercial value. As it is now, however, the shell is too thick, hard, and difficult to crack, and the kernel too small in proportion to the shell to make it marketable. The experiment of cultivating the mockernut to improve its fruit would be an interesting one, and certainly both the nuts of the mockernut and shagbark deserve as much attention as the English walnut. Both the specific names,—the Latin _alba_, and the English white-heart—refer to the color of the wood. This tree is found in New England and also in the West and South. [Sidenote: Bitternut Hickory _Hicoria minima_] _A large tree, with a light, granite-gray bark. Slender twigs, the recent shoots orange-green and dotted. Alternate leaf-scars. Buds long, curved, flattened, and pointed, the lateral ones shorter and more round than the terminal buds; all are orange-yellow in color,—the distinguishing characteristic of the tree. The nuts are bitter._ If the characteristic of the bitternut’s flattened, orange buds is remembered, this tree can be distinguished not only in winter, but at every other season of the year. The hickories are constantly confused, and the fact that they often hybridize complicates matters still more. Such an unfailing means of identification as these yellow buds is, therefore, a great help, and as there are always one or two lateral buds lying dormant along the stem, after the buds have opened in the spring, and as new buds are formed by the middle of the summer, there is scarcely a lapse of time when they fail to distinguish the tree. The bitternut is the most graceful of all the hickories. It has a smooth, tapering trunk and delicate twigs. Its wood is heavy, hard, tough, and close-grained, and is used for the yokes of oxen, for hoops and fuel. The nuts are so bitter that squirrels refuse them as food.