164 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



The American Chestnut. Castanea vesca, Gaertner, var. 



Americana, Michaux. 



Figured in Michaux ; Sylva, III, Plate 104. 



This is one of the largest and tallest of our forest trees. It 

 rises with a straight, erect stem, hardly diminishing in size, to 

 the height of sixty or seventy, and, in the forests in the south- 

 west part of the State, to ninety or one hundred feet. The 

 bark on the old stocks is of a dark color, very hard and rugged, 

 with long and deep clefts. In smaller trees, it is remarkably 

 smooth, and so continues till they have attained a considerable 

 size. When they are a foot or more in diameter, it begins to 

 crack with long, superficial cracks, at the distance of two or 

 three inches from each other. On each side of a branch, in the 

 bark, is an oblique cleft ; the two meeting above the branch. 



The recent shoots are large, of a deep green, or bronzed, or 

 purplish brown color, channelled with two grooves running 

 down from the base of each leaf, and closely set with prominent 

 white or gray dots. The older shoots are of a darker color. 



The leaves, which often come out in a diverging or radiant 

 manner, are very long, from six to nine, and often ten or 

 twelve inches, and one to two and a half or three inches wide, 

 lance-shaped, tapering or rounded at base, ending in a very 

 long point. The principal veins, which are regular, undivided 

 and parallel, end in long, bent points, which are separated by 

 large, curved indentations. They are green and polished 

 above, and smooth and paler beneath, and are supported by 

 stout footstalks, half an inch or an inch long. While quite 

 young, they are covered with a glandular viscidity, but soon 

 become smooth on both surfaces. On vigorous shoots from the 

 stump, a pair of somewhat glutinous stipules, broad at base, 

 and tapering to a point, defends the tender leaf, and continues, 

 bristling at right angles, to protect it, until the footstalk is 

 longer than they, when they fall off. 



The male flowers, which come out later than those of any 



ther forest tree, are in large, spreading bunches of stiff catkins, 



as long as the leaves, of a yellowish green color, and conspicuous 



