The specific name, _minima_ (the smallest), refers to the branches and foliage of the tree, which are more delicate than those of other hickories. The range is the same as that of the shagbark and mockernut. [Sidenote: Pignut Hickory _Hicoria glabra_] _A large tree, 70 to 80 feet high, with a tapering trunk and smooth gray bark, which does not shag. The buds are yellowish brown, and smaller than those of other hickories, with no black outer scales like those of the shagbark, and smaller than the mockernut buds. The buds are either round, or egg-shaped. Delicate twigs; alternate leaf-scars. The nut has a thick shell and poor kernel; the husk does not split all the way down as it does with the shagbark._ [Illustration: BITTERNUT HICKORY _Hicoria minima_ Page 53 ] If it were possible for trees to have negative characters, the pignut would be eminently negative. In fact, its distinguishing characteristic is that it has no one distinctive feature to identify it in winter, as all the other hickories have. Its bark is not wavy like the mockernut, and it does not shag like the shagbark; its buds are not yellow like the bitternut, nor large like the mockernut, nor has it black outer scales like the shagbark; its nuts are neither bitter nor sweet,—and yet these very negative qualities are a sure means of identification. One knows the pignut in much the same way that David Harum knew he had bought a horse, “the only thing to determine that fact was that it wa’n’t nothin’ else.” All praise, however, to the outline of the pignut against a winter sky. The tracery of its twigs and branches is delicate and graceful, and it looks as if it were drawn with the blackest India ink. Michaux calls the pignut one of the largest trees in the United States, and it certainly compares well with the three other native hickories in its general bearing, for it is as stately and beautiful in outline as they, in spite of its negative characteristics in details. The wood is like that of other hickories and it is used for the same purposes. The nuts vary much in shape and size. Some of them are oval, others broader than they are long, others perfectly round, and the sizes vary as much as the shapes. The nuts are not marketable, although they are not unpleasant to the taste and afford squirrels a supply of food for winter. The specific name, _glabra_ (smooth), refers to the shoots and leaves, which are smoother than those of other hickories. The range of the pignut is the same as that of other members of the genus; it is found throughout New England and in the West and South. [Illustration: PIGNUT HICKORY _Hicoria glabra_ Page 54 ] CHAPTER VI THE BIRCHES, HOP HORNBEAM, AND HORNBEAM [Illustration: CANOE BIRCH _Betula papyrifera_ Page 61 ] Chapter VI THE BIRCHES, HOP HORNBEAM, AND HORNBEAM Family Betulaceæ