90 SEVENTH REPORT OF THE FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



Striking characteristics which distinguish the native from foreign chestnuts are 

 found in its taller, straighter trunk, less rounded crown, thinner, smoother and more 

 pendent leaves, and smaller, but, invariably, sweeter nuts. The differences in all 

 cases are slight ; hence, in this discussion we shall be as patriotic as possible, and 

 follow the nomenclature of the school which regards our chestnut as a distinct 

 species. 



The specific name dcntata was determined by Mr. Sudworth to be the earliest 

 name identifiable with it, and b)' this it is generally designated. The Indians of 

 New York State called the chestnut " O-heh-yah-tah," which meant prickly bur. 



Castanea is distinguished by its broad spreading habit when grown in the open ; 

 its long, sharp-pointed, coarsely serrate bright green leaves ; and its wealth of 

 creamy-tinted, fragrant catkins, which burst into bloom in midsummer and give 

 color to the landscape long after the apple and cherry trees have scattered their 

 petals to the winds, or the red maples have matured their keys and the elms their 

 samaras. 



The staminate flowers are borne in the axils of the alternate leaves, on cylin- 

 drical catkins six to eight inches in length, which appear only after the leaves are 

 nearly grown in June. The male flowers proper appear in 3 to 7 flowered cymes in 

 the axils of minute bracts on the rachis of the pendent ament. The pollen is 

 abundant and fragrant, and is liberated readily, so that wind fertilization is easily 

 effected. 



The pistillate flowers appear singly or in groups of two or three within a short- 

 stemmed involucre of closely imbricated green bracts, in the axil of a bract borne 

 on the base of the erect pistillate ament. This involucre grows rapidly and eventu- 

 ally develops into the bur which incloses the nuts. At the time of blooming the 

 female (pistillate) flowers, including their burs, are about half an inch long, and are 

 borne on stiff spikes that grow from the axils of the leaves of the newly-formed 

 shoots. Usually onl\- 3-4 flowers at the base of the spike produce fruit. The 

 lower part only of the shoot supporting the immature burs becomes woody, as 

 the portion beyond shrivels and drops off, leaving the burs at maturity as a terminal 

 cluster. Botanically the fruit is a hard prickly cupule (bur) which splits at maturity 

 into four valves. 



Just what the bur of the chestnut is has puzzled botanists not inconsiderably, 

 and remains yet an undecided question. It is thought to be a whorl of metamor- 

 phosed bracts. 



The chestnut is strictly monoecious, yet in most individuals the staminate cat- 

 kins mature before the pistillate, thus making cross fertilization a necessity. Why 



