MOCKER NUT, BULL NUT, BIG-BUD HICKORY, KING NUT, WHITE-HEART HICKORY, ETC. (_Hicoria tomentosa._ Michaux).--Leaflets mostly seven, occasionally nine, large, oblong-obovate, rather long pointed, slightly serrate, smooth on both sides while young, becoming roughish downy underneath when fully developed in summer; leaf-stalks and catkins also somewhat downy. Fruit medium to very large, round or ovoid, with a very thick woody husk, which splits nearly or quite down to the base, but usually falling with the enclosed nut entire, or bursting open as they strike the ground. Nut very thick shelled, smooth, or strongly four to six angled, white at first, but becoming a dull brown when exposed to the light. The kernel is sweet, but so small and firmly imbedded in the thick shell that it is only to be removed in minute sections, but this is successfully accomplished by the squirrels, who often throw down the entire crop from large trees before the shells harden, and then pack them away in the ground, in old logs, and under the leaves, where they will not dry for some weeks or months later. An exceedingly variable species, especially in the size and form of the nuts; on some trees they are scarcely an inch in diameter, while on others they are nearly or quite two inches, but always with such a thick, hard shell as to be nearly worthless for their meats. The largest of these nuts I have ever seen grow in central and western New York, where they are called "King" or "Bull" nuts. [Illustration: FIG. 49. LEAF OF PIGNUT.] The trees grow to a very large size, or from sixty to eighty feet high, and two to three feet in diameter, with a thick, deeply furrowed bark, not scaly. The wood is white, heavy, tough, and nearly as valuable as the common shellbark hickory. The terminal buds, and especially those on the young seedlings and suckers springing up in clearings, are very large, round, short, and covered with brownish scales, hence one of the local names of big-bud hickory. A widely distributed species, or from the valley of the St. Lawrence to Florida, and along the great lakes to Nebraska, and thence southward to Texas. Unlike most of the other hickories, this species seems to prefer thin soils, rocky sandstone ridges, and here in New Jersey almost disappearing in the rich bottom lands along our creeks and rivers; at least, this is its habit here in the northern part of the State. Synonyms: _Juglans alba (?)_, Linn., 1754. _Juglans tomentosa_, Michaux, 1810. _Carya tomentosa_, Nuttall, 1818. _Carya tomentosa_ var. _maxima_, Nuttall. _Carya alba_, Koch, Dendrologie.