BOTANICAL NOTES ON BRITISH FOREST TREES. 331 



Seed (enclosed in pericarp) exalbuminous, with large, 

 fleshy, apposed cotyledons. 



Seedling with long epicotyl, springing from between 

 the buried cotyledons. Stem at first bearing scales 

 (stipules) only, and then one stipulate typical leaf. 



11. CHESTNUT. 

 Costarica vesca (Gaertn.). Cupuliferse. 



Large tree, with olive to reddish brown twigs marked 

 with whitish lenticels. Young branches olive to silver- 

 grey. Bark brown and Oak-like, but with longer 

 furrows and often twisted. 



Buds slightly displaced laterally, sharp -ovoid, only 

 showing two or three scales. 



Leaves alternate, petiolate, oblong-lanceolate acumi- 

 nate, coarsely serrate. 



Male flowers in small tufts arranged on stiff, erect 

 stalks. Female flowers in threes, surrounded by an 

 involucre ; grouped at the tips of branches, or at the base 

 of the male inflorescence. 



Fruits (the edible chestnut) in twos or threes, sur- 

 rounded by the prickly involucre, which splits to allow 

 their escape. 



Wood very like that of the Oak, but devoid of the 

 broad medullary rays. 



Seed (fused with the pericarp) exalbuminous. Coty- 

 ledons large, thick and fleshy, and remain buried in the 

 soil. First leaf entire. 



