288 



PLANTS AND MAN 



205). The smooth, blue-gray bark is a distinguishing feature for 

 trees of all ages. It ranges from the Atlantic coast westward to 

 Wisconsin, Illinois, Louisiana and eastern Texas, and from north- 

 ern Florida to New Brunswick and is one of the most common 

 trees of the eastern hardwood forest, reaching a fairlv large size, 



Fig. 205.- 



-Beeches have sharply-toothed leaves and pyramid-shaped nuts borne 

 in small burrs. 



often one hundred feet or more. The wood is hard, strong, and 

 tough, but is not durable in contact with the soil. 



The Chestnut 



The CHESTNUT (Castanea) is the only important native member 

 of its genus, although several other species, known as chinquapins, 

 are found in the south. The leaves of chestnut are similar to those 

 of beech, except for their large size and more prominent incurved 

 teeth (fig. 206). The staminate flowers are borne in a long catkin, 

 while the pistillate occur in clusters of two to five; the fruit is the 

 familiar large, rounded nut, enclosed in a bur covered with 

 sharp, branched spines. 



Chestnut was one of our very valuable timber species, ranging 

 widely from southern Maine to Indiana, south to Mississippi and 

 Virginia, until the advent of the chestnut blight at the beginning 

 of the century. The past thirty five years have seen it reduced 

 from the position of a dominant species throughout large parts of 

 the East to an almost extinct tree (see page 424). Its fast growth, 



