FAGACE^ 221 



usually rather broader than long, coated at the ap3x or nearly to the middle with 

 thick pale tomentum, the interior of the shell lined with thick rufous tomentura; 

 seed very sweet. 



A tree, occasionally 100^ high, with a tall straight columnar trunk 3-4 in diame- 

 ter, or often when uncrowded by other trees with a short trunk occasionally 10-12 

 in diameter, and usually divided not far above the ground into 3 or 4 stout horizon- 

 tal limbs forming a broad low round-topped head of slightly pendulous branches 

 frequently 100 across, and branchlets at first light yellow-green sometimes tinged 

 with red, somewhat angled, lustrous, slightly puberulous, soon becoming glabrous 

 and olive-green tinged with yellow or brown tinged with green and ultimately dark 

 brown. Winter-buds ovate, acute, about \' long, with thin dark chestnut-brown 

 scales scarious on the margins. Bark from 1-2' thick, dark brown and divided by 

 shallow irregular often interrupted fissures into broad flat ridges separating on the 

 surface into small thin closely appressed scales. Wood light, soft, not strong, liable 

 to check and warp in drying, easily split, reddish brown, with thin lighter colored 

 sapwood of 3 or 4 layers of annual grow^th; largely used in the manufacture of cheap 

 furniture and in the interior finish of houses, for railway-ties, fence-posts, and rails. 

 The nuts, which are superior to those of the Old World Chestnut in sweetness and 

 flavor, are gathered in great quantities in the forest and sold in the markets of the 

 eastern cities. 



Distribution. Southern Maine to the valley of the Winooski River, Vermont, 

 and southern Ontario, along the southern shores of Lake Ontario to southern Michi- 

 gan, southward to Delaware and southeastern Indiana, and along the Alleghany 

 Mountains to central Alabama and Mississippi, and to central Kentucky and Ten- 

 nessee; very common on the glacial drift of the northern states and, except at the 

 north, mostly confined to the Appalachian hills; attaining its greatest size in western 

 North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. 



Occasionally planted in the eastern states as an ornamental and timber tree, and 

 for its nuts, of which several varieties are now recognized. 



2. Castanea pumila. Mill. Chinquapin. 



Leaves oblong-oval to oblong-obovate, acute, coarsely serrate, with slender rigid 

 spreading or incurved teeth, gradually narrowed and usually unequal and rounded 

 or wedge-shaped at the base, when they unfold tinged with red and coated above 

 with pale caducous tomentum and below with thick snowy white tomentum, at ma- 

 turity rather thick and firm in texture, bright yellow-green on the upper surface, 

 hoary or silvery-pubescent on the lower, 3'-5' long, l-j'-2' wide, turning dull yel- 

 low in the autumn; their petioles stout, pubescent, flattened on the upper side, j^' 

 long; stipules light yellow-green, pubescent, those of the 2 lowest leaves broad, 

 ovate, acute, covered at the apex by rufous tomentum, on later leaves ovate-lanceo- 

 late, often oblique and acute, becoming linear at the end of the branch. Flo"wers : 

 staminate aments -|' long when they first appear, pubescent, green below, bright red 

 at the apex, becoming when fully grown 4'-6' long, with stout hoary tomentose stems 

 and crowded or scattered flower-clusters; androgynous aments silvery tomentose, 

 3'-4' long; involucres l-flowered, scattered at the base of the ament or often spicate 

 and covering its lower half, sessile or short-stalked. Fruit : involucres I'-l^ in di- 

 ameter, with thin walls coated on the inner surface with pale silky hairs, tomentose 

 and covered on the outer surface with crowded fascicles of slender spines tomentose 

 toward the base, or with scattered clusters of stouter spines; nut ovate, cylindrical, 



