CUPULIFERZ. SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 15 
The Chestnut attracted the attention of several early European travelers in America, and what is 
probably the first account of its fruit appears in the narrative of one of the followers of De Soto, 
published in 1609.1. More than a century later it was described by Clayton in the Flora Virginica.? 
Castanea dentata is one of the most useful and beautiful trees of the forests of eastern North 
America. No other tree grows so rapidly or to such a great size on the dry gravelly hills of the north- 
eastern states. Always beautiful with its massive trunk, its compact round-topped head, and slender 
dark green leaves,.in early summer, long after the flowers of its companions have disappeared, the 
Chestnut covers itself with great masses of spikes of yellow flowers, and is then the most magnificent 
object in the sylvan landscape.’ 
of the fruit of that tree. In recent years in the middle states 
Chestnut-trees grown in the woods have been successfully grafted 
with varieties of the European Chestnut, and productive orchards 
have been established. (See The Rural New Yorker, liii. 661, 677, 
693.) 
1 “Where there be Mountaines, there be chestnuts: they are 
somewhat smaller than the chestnuts of Spaine.” (Virginia richly 
valued. Written by a Portugall gentleman of Eluas, emploied in all 
the action, and translated out of Portuguese, by Richard Hakluyt, 
131 [Force, Coll. Hist. Tracts, iv. No. 1].) 
“ Chestnutt, of this sorte there is very greate plenty ; the tym- 
ber whereof is excellent for building, and is a very good commod- 
ity, especially in respect of the fruit, both for man and beast.” 
(Morton, New English Canaan, 44 [Force, 1. c. ii. No. 5].) 
“In some places we fynd chestnutts, whose wild fruict I maie 
well saie equallize the best in France, Spaine, Germany, Italy, or 
those so commended in the Black sea, by Constantinople, of all 
which I have eaten.” (Strachey, Historie of Travaile into Vir- 
ginia Britannia, ed. Major, 117, t.) 
“The Indians have an Art of drying their chesnuts, and so to 
preserve them in their barnes for a daintie all the year.” 
Williams, A Key into the Language of America, 90.) 
“Chestnuts ; very sweet in taste, and may be (as they usually 
(Roger 
are) eaten raw; the Indians sell them to the English for twelve 
(Josselyn, New England Rarities, 97.) 
2 Castanea fructu dulciori, 118. 
38 Garden and Forest, iii. 359, f.— Rothrock, Forest Leaves, ii. 
35, f. 
pence a bushel.” 
