1984 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 
Varietics. These may be arranged in two classes; those which are considered 
botanical varieties, and those which are cultivated on account of their fruit. 
A. Botanical Varieties. 
¥ C.v. 2 asplenifolia Lodd. Cat., 1836 ; C. heterophylla Hort. ; C. laciniata 
Hort.; C. salicifolia Hort., has the leaves cut into shreds, regularly, 
or irregularly, and sometimes so as to appear like linear-lanceolate 
leaves; and hence the epithet of salicifolia. 
¥ C. v. 3 cochledta Lodd. Cat., 1836, has the leaves cuculate, or hooded, 
with a diseased stunted appearance. 
¥ C. v. 4 glabra Lodd. Cat., 1836 ; C. v. foliis lucidus Hort.; has the leaves 
rather thin, and more shining than those of the species. 
# C. v. 5 glatica, C. glaica Hort., has the leaves somewhat glaucous. 
+ C. v. 6 variegata; C. vy. foliis adreis Ludd. Cat., 1836; has the leaves vari- 
egated with yellow, with some streaks of white; and the tree, when 
of a larger size, makes a splendid appearance in spring, and is admi- 
rably adapted for planting among evergreen shrubs, along with the 
balsam poplar; the colour of which, when the leaves first expand, 
has all the rich yellow of this variety, with the advantage of being 
associated in the mind with ideas of health; whereas variegation is 
known to be generally the effect of disease. 
 C.v. 7 americana ; C. vésca Miche. N. Amer. Syl., iii. p. 9.—This variety 
has broader leaves than the European chestnut. 
B. Fruit-bearing Varieties. 
In the French catalogues these are very numerous ; and in De Chabrol’s 
Statistiques de Savone, &c., it is stated that between 40 and 50 varieties are 
cultivated in the province of Mondovi, in Piedmont. (See Gard. Mag., yol.i. 
p. 322.) There are upwards of 20 sorts cultivated in the London Horti- 
cultural Society’s Garden, of which Mr. Thompson considers the four fol- 
lowing as deserving the preference for ornamental cultivation: — Cha- 
taignier prime, C. Rallue, the Downton Chestnut, and Prolific Chestnut. 
Besides these there are the foliowing English sorts :— Devonshire, Lewis’s, 
Lisbon, Masters’s, Canterbury, Knight’s Prolific, and the New Prolific. 
The nurserymen in the south of Devonshire, and in Jersey, generally pay 
more attention to the sweet chestnut, as a fruit tree, than the nurserymen in 
the neighbourhood of London. There is said to be a tree of a very superior 
variety in a garden in St. Peter’s parish, Jersey, from which, it is believed, 
plants are propagated in Saunders’s Nursery, in that island, (See Gard. 
Mag., vol. vii. p. 101.) 
The varieties cultivated in France for the table are divided into two kinds, 
viz., les chataignes and les marrons ; the former being to the latter what the 
crab is to the apple. The latter are, of course, much preferred, being larger, 
more farinaceous, and sweeter. When roasted, they have also a rich creamy 
flavour, and an aromatic odour, in which the common chestnuts are quite 
deficient. The best marrons sold in Paris are the marrons de Lyons; and 
the best kinds of the common chestnut are : — La chataigne de Bois, the 
fruit of which is small, will not keep, and is of little flavour; and the tree 
forms the principal coppice-wood in the neighbourhood of Paris: la Cha- 
taigne ordinaire, of which the fruit is rather better, and the tree more 
vigorous, and a greater bearer: la Chataigne pourtalonne, the fruit of which 
is very fine, and produced in great abundance: la Chataigne printaniére, 
the fruit of which has no other merit than that of being produced very early 
in the season : la Chataigne verte du Limousin, which produces very large 
excellent fruit, which will keep a long time, and the tree of which preserves 
its leaves green much longer than”any of the other varieties: and la Cha- 
taigne exalade, the fruit of which is the best of all the common chestnuts 
for the table; but the tree, which is low, with spreading branches, is such 
an abundant bearer, that it soon exhausts itself. (Le Bon Jard. 1837.) 
Description, $c. The chestnut, under favourable circumstances, is a mag- 
nificent tree, though it never attains a height, or diameter of head, equal to 
