2 SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. CUPULIFERZ. 
at the apex by the abortive ovules, exalbuminous, hypogeous; testa membranaceous; cotyledons 
plano-convex, fleshy, farinaceous ; radicle minute, superior, included between the cotyledons, the hilum 
basal, minute.’ 
Of Castanopsis, which is intermediate in its characters between the Oak and the Chestnut, about 
twenty-five species are now recognized. One inhabits the forests of Pacific North America, and the 
others southeastern Asia, where they are distributed from southern China through Malaya to the 
eastern Himalayas.° 
Comparatively little is known of the economic properties of the Chinese and Malayan species. 
Some of those of India produce strong durable wood used in construction, and edible nuts.’ 
In North America Castanopsis is not known to be seriously injured by insects and is compara- 
tively free from the attacks of fungal diseases.® 
: ¥ : 6 : 
Castanopsis, from xdotava and dus, was first used as the name of a section of Quercus,’ to which 
some of the Indian species were originally referred. 
1 A. de Candolle, Ann. Sci. Nat. sér. 4, xviii. 53. 
By A. de Candolle (Jour. Bot. i. 182) the species of Castanopsis 
are grouped in two sections : — 
Evucastanopsis. Fruiting involucres beset with ridged spines, 
dehiscent or indehiscent. 
CaLLzocarPus. Fruiting involucres tuberculate or ridged, de- 
hiscent or indehiscent. 
2 By Baillon (Hist. Pl. vi. 233) Castanopsis was considered a 
section of Castanea, from whieh it differs principally in its three- 
celled ovary, and this view has been adopted by Prantl (Engler & 
Prantl Pflanzenfam. iii. pt. i. 55), while G. King (Ann. Bot. Gard. 
Calcutta, ii. 18 [Indo-Malayan Species of Quercus and Castanop- 
sis]), although retaining the genus on the ground of convenience, 
could find no characters by which it could be satisfactorily sepa- 
rated from the section Chlamydobalanus of Quercus. 
8 Blume, Bydr. Fl. Ned. Ind. 525 (Castanea) ; Mus. Bot. Lugd. 
Bat. i. 282 (Castanea). —Spach, Hist. Vég. xi. 185.— Blume & 
Fischer, Fl. Jav. i. 37 (Castanea). — Miquel, Fl. Ind. Bat. i. 868 
(Castanea and Callzocarpus) ; Suppl. 352; Ann. Mus. Lugd. Bat. 
i. 118. — Bentham, Fl. Hongk. 319 (Castanea). — A. de Candolle, 
l.c. ; Prodr. xvi. pt. ii. 109. — Hance, Jour. Bot. xiii. 367 ; xvi. 200 ; 
xxii. 230. — Kurz, Forest Fl. Brit. Burm. ii. 477 (Castanea). — 
Franchet, Nouv. Arch. Mus. sér. 2, v. 277 (Pl. David. i.). — Hooker 
f. Fl. Brit. Ind. v. 619. —G. King, 1. c. 93. 
4 Brandis, Forest Fl. Brit. Ind. 490.—Gamble, Man. Indian 
Timbers, 388. 
5 Castanopsis chrysophylla is subject to the attacks of Taphrina 
cerulescens, Tulasne, a fungus which is also common on the leaves 
of several species of Quercus, forming ash-colored patches on their 
under surface. 
6 D. Don, Prodr. Fl. Nepal. 56 (1825). 
