=4.= =Carya laciniòsa= (Michaux filius) Loudon. Big Shellbark Hickory. Plate 25. Large tall trees with trunks like those of the shellbark hickory; bark of young trees tight, beginning to scale when the trees reach a diameter of 1-2 dm., on older trees separating and scaling off into long thin narrow strips; twigs at the end of the season stout, 4-7 mm. thick near the tip, the twigs of the season hairy at first, becoming glabrous or nearly so by the end of autumn, yellowish or late in autumn a rusty brown, frequently retaining the leaf-stalks of the leaves of the previous season until spring which is peculiar to this species; terminal buds large, ovoid to ovoid-oblong, 10-25 mm. long; ordinary leaves 3-5 dm. long; leaflets 5-9, prevailing number 7, ovate to oblong-lanceolate or obovate, the largest 1-2 dm. long, velvety beneath when they unfold and remaining hairy beneath until maturity, rarely nearly glabrous; fruit ovate, subglobose, oblong or obovate, 3.5-7 cm. long; dry husk 3.5-11 mm. thick; nut variable, generally much compressed, up to 5.5 cm. long, usually circular in outline, but varying from ovate to obovate and oblong, usually each side has 2 or 3 ridges which extend more or less often to the base; shell very thick; kernel sweet; wood and uses same as that of the shellbark hickory. [Illustration: Plate 25. CARYA LACINIOSA (Michaux filius) Loudon. Big Shellbark Hickory. (× 1/2.) The nuts are from different trees to show variation.] =Distribution.=--Southwestern Ontario south to Alabama and west to Louisiana, Nebraska and Iowa. Found throughout Indiana, except there are as yet no records from the extreme northwest counties. It is frequent to common in moist rich woods, or in river bottoms which is its favorite habitat. It is usually associated with the shellbark hickory where it grows in moist situations. Sometimes in the river bottoms it grows in situations too wet for the shellbark hickory. In the lower Wabash bottoms it becomes a common tree. =Remarks.=--This hickory is also known as the big scaly-bark hickory and hard-head hickory. The nuts are an article of commerce and by some are preferred to the shellbark hickory although the nuts are hard to crack. This objection is easily overcome by wetting the nuts, and drying them by using heat which cracks the shell, making them easy to crack.