AMKNTIFETi;r. 159 



glandular disk n,t the bnse of the perianth. Female flowers 2 to 5 

 together, rarely solitary, surrounded by a common bellshaped in- 

 volucre, the outside of which is furnished with numerous linear 

 bracts imbricated in many rows: perianth completely adherent to 

 the ovary, and produced beyond it, the limb with 5 to 8 teeth: 

 stamens rudimentary : ovary with 3 to 8 cells ; ovules 2 in each cell ; 

 styles very short and thick ; stigmas as many as the cells of the ovary, 

 ascending. Nuts ovate-ovoid or subglobose, acuminated, usually 

 compressed, 2, more rarely 3 or 5 enclosed in a common coriaceous 

 bristly-spiny subglobular involucre, which opens by 4 valves ; pericarp 

 tough and leathery. Cotyledons filling the seed, folded, coherent, 

 farinaceous. 



Trees with scaly buds and deciduous spinous-dentate leaves. 

 Flowers monoecious, appearing after the leaves. 



The name of tin's genus of plants is derived from Castfina, a town in Tliessaly, 

 where it was abundant, or, as some authors say, from another toAvn of that name in 

 Pontus. 



SPECIES I.-CASTANEA VULGARIS. Lam. 



Plate MCCXC. 



ndch. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. XII. Tab. DCXL. Fig. 1305. 



Billof; Fl. Gall, et Germ, Exsicc. K'o. 2531. 



C. vesca, Giirfn. Reich. 1. c. p. 6. 



C. sativa. Mill. Crop. Man. Fl. de Belg. ed. ii. p. QQQ. 



Fagus Castanea, Limi. Sm. Engl. Bot. ed. i. No. 88G. 



Leaves elliptical or oblong-elliptical, acuminate, serrate with the 

 serratures mucronate, glabrous above and below. 



In woods and copses, but having scarcely any claim to be considered 

 native, unless possibly so in the south and west of England. In 

 Scotland its fruit rarely ripens, even in the latitude of Edinburgh. 



[England, Scotland, Ireland.] Tree. Early Summer. 



A large tree with spreading branches, attaining a height of 50 feet or 

 more, the old bark deeply cleft. Leaves on petioles rarely above an 

 inch long; the lamina 5 to 9 inches, with numerous veins running 

 straight from the midrib to the margins, and terminating in the bristly 

 points of the serratures. Flowers produced on the shoots of the year; 

 male catkins 4 to 8 inches long, ascending, with a stiiF rachis, on 

 which the glomerules are placed at short distances from each other : 

 stamens long; anthers pale yellow. Female flowers shortly stalked 

 or subsessile : involucre 4-partite. In fruit the involucre becomes 

 enlarged, somewhat woody, thickly clothed on the outside with 

 unequal bristly spines, and containing 2 or 3 smooth nuts attached by 

 a large basal scar. Leaves bright green, shining above, paler beneath. 



