THE CHESTNUT. 87 



not differ so widely as to be untraceable to the proemial 

 types, they are held to be varieties of one species. 



Whether all the chestnuts found in the various 

 countries of the world are descendants of one original 

 tree or group of trees is now beyond our ability to deter- 

 mine ; consequently, what are now termed species rests 

 very much upon the opinions of botanists, as may read- 

 ily be demonstrated by consulting the works of hundreds 

 of authors who have essayed to describe and classify the 

 plants of any locality or country, and this, too, without 

 reaching an absolute finality acceptable to their contempo- 

 raries, or at all likely to share a better fate with posterity. 



For many years after botany began to be recognized 

 as a science, the common American sweet chestnut was 

 considered a distinct species, but in recent years it has 

 been relegated to the position of a widely distributed 

 variety of the European chestnut, and it is so described 

 and classified in most of the botanical works of the pres- 

 ent time, and under such names as Castanea vesca, vari- 

 ety Americana; Castanea sativa, variety Americana; 

 Castanea vulgar is, variety Americana, etc. 



The Asiatic species or varieties under whichever 

 cognomen we may find them described in botanical 

 works have fared little better than our American kinds, 

 for some botanists have described the Japan chestnut as 

 a distinct species, while others only as a widely diver- 

 gent variety of the common European chestnut. 



I regret that there should be any need of giving so 

 much space to this matter of species and varieties, yet 

 presuming that far the larger number of my readers will 

 not be professional botanists, nor persons with a botan- 

 ical library at hand to consult for unfamiliar terms, I 

 have thought this explanation in regard to classification 

 might assist them in making clear the apparent confu- 

 sion of names which, in the main, are only synonyms. 

 Furthermore, I purpose retaining some of the older spe- 



