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of one hundred feet, and its trunk is from four to six feet in diameter. The bark is dark brown with deep vertical grooves and its surface is broken with thick scales. The leaves are compound, growing on a middle stem which is sometimes two feet long. Each leaflet is a narrow oval, sharply pointed at the end, and usually about three inches long. The nuts require frost to ripen them. =Butternut= While the _butternut-tree_ is much like the walnut in general appearance, it does not grow as large. The nuts are different in shape and in flavor, and the leaflets are hairy instead of smooth. The butternut does not grow as far north as the walnut, but is often found side by side with the walnut in the Middle States. The green outer covering of the nut is oblong and sticky on the surface, and, like the walnut, will stain the hands. The shell is hard, brown, oblong, and pointed at one end. It is deeply grooved. The flavor is rich but the nut being oily soon becomes rancid. =Hickory-Nuts= In gathering hickory-nuts you must be able to distinguish between the edible variety and others that are fair on the outside but bitter within. There are nine varieties of hickory-nut trees, and in general appearance they are alike. All have compound leaves and the leaflets are larger and fewer to the stem than the walnut, usually numbering from five to eleven. The nuts grow in small clusters as a rule, often in pairs, and the outer husk separates when ripe into four pieces, allowing the nut to drop out clean and dry. The full-grown tree is of good size and is found almost everywhere in the United States. =Shellbark. Shagbark= The _shellbark_ or shagbark hickory-nut is one of the best. The flavor, as every one knows, is sweet and pleasant. It is the bark of the tree that gives it the name of shagbark, for it separates into long, ragged strips several inches wide which generally hold to the trunk at the middle and give it an unkempt, shaggy appearance. =Mockernut= The _mockernut_ is the hickory-nut with a dark, brownish-colored shell, hard and thick and not easily cracked. It is called the mockernut because while the nut is large, usually larger than the shellbark, the kernel is very small and difficult to take out of the thick shell. =Pignut= I will italicize the _pignut_ because, though I have never eaten it, I once tried to, and the first taste was all-sufficient. Some writers tell us that the flavor is sweet or
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