10 
SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 
CUPULIFER A. 
the third is a shrub! of the southern coast region. Before the middle tertiary period Castanea existed 
in northern Greenland, and in Alaska, where traces of the leaves and fruit of Castanea Ungeri,’ Heer, 
have been distinguished ; and impressions of the leaves of one and perhaps of two species found in the 
miocene rocks of Oregon,’ and in those of the upper miocene of the Colorado parks, show that Castanea, 
which already existed in Europe in the cretaceous period,* once inhabited western North America, 
whence it has now disappeared. 
Castanea produces brittle coarse-grained porous wood, very durable in contact with the soil, and 
rich in tannin,’ and sweet farinaceous seeds, which are important articles of food in the countries of 
southern Europe and in China and Japan. 
In the United States an infusion of the leaves of Castanea 
finds a place in the American Pharmacopeeia, and has been used with doubtful results in the treatment 
of whooping-cough,* and in homeopathic practice.” 
In North America Castanea is not seriously injured by the attacks of insects * or fungal diseases.” 
The Japanese Chestnut-tree is more precocious than the Euro- 
pean variety, and often begins to bear fruit when only a few feet 
high. It has been introduced into the gardens of eastern North 
America, where several named varieties are recognized by gardeners, 
and where it is hardy and prolific as far north as eastern Massa- 
chusetts. It is also occasionally cultivated in California and in 
Europe. 
1 Castanea alnifolia, Nuttall, Gen. ii. 217 (1818) ; Sylva, i. 19, 
t. 6. 
? Fagus pumila, var. preecox, Walter, Fl. Car. 233 (1788). 
Castanea nana, Elliott, Sk. ii. 615 (1824). — Rafinesque, New 
Fl. iii. 83.— Nuttall, Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. n. ser. v. 168. — 
Kearney, Bull. Torrey Bot. Club, xxi. 261, t. 206. 
Castanea pumila, B nana, A. de Candolle, Prodr. xvi. pt. ii. 115 
(1864). 
Castanea alnifolia is a shrub with stems rarely exceeding three 
feet in height, forming small thickets by means of stolons in sandy 
barrens in the neighborhood of the coast of the south Atlantic 
states, and in western Louisiana and southern Arkansas. From 
Castanea pumila, with which it grows in the same regions and has 
often been confounded, it is distinguished by its larger oval-lanceo- 
late mostly obtuse leaves, dark green and lustrous on the upper 
surface and green and slightly pubescent or tomentose on the 
lower, and by its larger nuts, which usually ripen rather earlier in 
the season. 
2 Fl. Arct. ii. 470, t. 45, £. 1-3, t. 46, f. 8. — Lesquereux, Rep. 
U. S. Geolog. Surv. viii. 246, t. 52, £. 1, 3-7 (Contrib. Fossil Fl. 
Western Territories, iii.). 
8 Lesquereux, l. c. vil. 163 (1. ¢. ii.). 
4 Saporta, Origine Paléontologique des Arbres, 155. — Zittel, 
Handb. Paleontolog. ii. 429. 
5 The extract of Chestnut-wood, which contains from seven to 
eight per cent. of tannin, is largely used in the United States and 
Europe to correct the color of hemlock and other tanning mate- 
tials, and to produce a black dye. It is principally prepared in 
the mountainous regions of the middle Atlantic states of North 
America, where it is an extensive and important industry, and in 
France. To obtain the extract the logs are cut into lengths of 
from four to five feet, the large ones are split, and they are then 
chipped or shaved across the grain into small pieces by machinery 
constructed for the purpose. The chips are boiled in open wooden 
vessels or in closed copper or iron boilers to extract the tannin, and 
the product is then evaporated in vacuum pans. (See Sheldon, Am. 
Jour. Sci. i. 312 [The Application of Chestnut Wood to the Arts of 
Tanning and Dyeing]. — Paul Nass, Ueber den Gerbstoff der Casta- 
nea vesca. — Trimble, Jour. Franklin Inst. exxxii. 303 ; exxxiv. 408 ; 
The Tannins, ii. 117.) 
6 Johnson, Man. Med. Bot. N. Am. 250.— U. S. Dispens. ed. 16, 
380. 
7 Millspaugh, Am. Med. Pl. in Homeopathic Remedies, ii. 158, t. 
158. 
8 Although the insects that prey upon Castanea in America have 
not been exhaustively studied, nearly seventy species are known to 
affect the living trees and wood (Packard, 5th Rep. Entomolog. 
Comm. 343). Among the species which destroy the wood a large 
undetermined Coleopterous larva is sometimes found boring into 
the solid trunks. 
affect the Chestnut are Arhopalus fulminans, Fabricius, Calloides 
The beetles whose larve are also known to 
nobilis, Say, and Callidium eareum, Newman. The larve of various 
species of beetles live in the bark, or in the branchlets after these 
have died or become diseased. Lepidopterous borers sometimes 
attack the trunks, Prionorystus Robinie, Peck, having been noticed 
on Chestnut-trees, which are believed to be injured also by the 
imported European Zeuzera pyrina, Fabricius. Insects living upon 
Fall Web- 
worms, however, the larve of Tussock Moths, and of species of 
the leaves rarely do much injury to Chestnut-trees. 
Datana, Apatela, and other moths are common upon them. Eugo- 
nia subsignaria, Hiibner, has been reported as destroying forests of 
Hickories and Chestnuts in Georgia (Rep. Dept. Agric. U. S. 1880, 
271). Leaf-miners, principally species of Lithocolletis, Tischeria, 
and Nepticula, are rather common on Chestnut-trees, and the 
leaves are also affected by such tree-hoppers as Smilia Castanea, 
Fitch, and by Callipterus Castanee, Fitch, and Phylloxera Castanee, 
Haldeman. The larve of weevils from eggs deposited in the ovary 
of the flower frequently destroy the nuts, Balaninus caryatrypes, 
Boheman, often devouring them, and they are also eaten by the 
grubs of Balaninus rectus, Say. 
® The Chestnut in America probably suffers less from fungal 
diseases than other trees of the same family. In midsummer a 
fungus, described originally by Berkeley & Curtis as Septoria 
ochroleuca, and later by Cooke & Ellis under the name of Cryptospo- 
rium epiphyllum, sometimes produces on the leaves small yellowish 
brown well-defined spots which the Italian botanist Berlese con- 
siders identical with the Italian seccume, a disease produced by 
Cylindrosporium castanicolum, Berlese, although the injury, which 
has been noticed in several places, seems to be less serious than it 
is in Europe. The trunks and stumps of Chestnut-trees are favorite 
habitations for a number of species of large fungi, and it is on 
them and on the trunks of different species of Quercus that the 
three species of Fistulina known in the United States are found. 
