96 THE KTT CULTUEIST. 



propagated by grafting. It is true that nearly all deal- 

 ers in trees offer seedling American chestnuts, which 

 may mean good, bad or indifferent varieties when the 

 trees come into bearing. Among all of the many thou- 

 sands that have been raised and planted in the East and 

 West, beyond the natural range of the chestnut, as, for 

 instance, in Missouri, Kansas and Iowa, there must be 

 some distinct and valuable varieties worthy of names 

 and propagation. There are not only distinct varieties 

 to be found in every forest, but in some instances the 

 entire product of an extended area of country are dis- 

 tinct in their color, size, and general appearance of the 

 nuts produced ; as, for instance, in the woolly chestnuts 

 of the Piedmont district of Virginia, these being so 

 nearly covered with a white down that they remind one 

 of popcorn. Hundreds of bushels of these woolly chest- 

 nuts come to our markets, and among them I have often 

 found very large specimens, but so far as known, no 

 effort has been made to perpetuate them. 



So far as can now be determined, the wild or orig- 

 inal European chestnut was much inferior in its flavor, 

 and little, if any, larger than our American sweet chest- 

 nut ; but by continued selections of the largest for plant- 

 ing, and propagation by grafting, it has attained to its 

 present size and excellence ; but this system of improv- 

 ing our native varieties has scarcely, as yet, been at- 

 tempted, a fact which does not, in the least, redound to 

 our credit. 



BUSH CHINQUAPIN (C. nana. Muhlenberg). Of 

 this I do not know of any named varieties in cultivation. 

 Plants are occasionally seen in cultivated grounds, and I 

 have one in my garden growing in a sheltered position, 

 where it has fruited for several years. It is a pretty, 

 round-headed, silvery-leaved bush, about six feet high ; 

 ornamental, if not specially valuable for other purposes, 

 although* the little sweet nuts are always acceptable. As 



