840 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



obcordate or semicircular, with three groups of bundle-dots, and set parallel to the 

 twig on prominent pulvini, distichous on the long shoots. Stipule-scars long, 

 linear. Buds ovoid, slightly rounded and not acute at the apex, those nearest the 

 apex of the twig the largest ; three scales visible externally, first scale small and 

 short, second scale longer, both glabrous and ciliate ; third scale clothed with 

 appressed pubescence and appearing at the apex of the bud. 



The twigs and buds of the chestnut resemble those of the lime tree. The 

 pith affords a good mark of distinction, being greenish and five-rayed in Castanea, 

 and whitish and round in Tilia. 



In France, single trees have been noticed 1 in several localities, which bore 

 catkins entirely formed of pistillate flowers. Such trees, according to Dode, 2 bear a 

 large quantity of fruit ; but the presence in the neighbourhood of a tree with 

 staminate flowers is necessary for fertilisation. Mr. Lynch informs me that an 

 isolated tree in a garden at Cambridge never bore fruit, until branches, with 

 staminate flowers from another tree, were laid upon it ; but it is uncertain whether 

 this tree bore only pistillate flowers, or whether its own pollen was ineffective. 

 Dode also mentions 2 a tree in the department of the Loire which never bore fruit, 

 as its catkins were entirely composed of staminate flowers. 



The number of seeds in the nut is also variable ; and a single chestnut with 

 three seeds has been known to germinate and produce three plants. 1 



Varieties 



The chestnut varies very little in the wild state, though the amount of pubescence 

 which occurs on the leaf is remarkably different in many specimens. At the Scientific 

 Committee meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society on 6th November 1900, some 

 remarkable leaves were shown, consisting of but little more than the midribs, which 

 had issued from the stump of a tree that had been felled ; and it is possible that some 

 of the narrow-leaved varieties originated in this way. 



Schelle 8 enumerates nineteen varieties, which have been obtained in cultivation. 

 Seven of these are forms with variously coloured and variegated leaves, viz. 

 argentea, marginata, argenteo-marginata, argenteo-variegata, aureo-maculata, aureo- 

 marginata, and aureo-variegata. These are sufficiently explained by their names ; 

 and of those we have seen aureo-marginata is the best. 4 



Var. heterophyllaJ' Leaves variable in shape, some with irregularly-shaped teeth 

 and occasional deep sinuses, others repand in margin and with few teeth. 



Var. aspleniifolia (var. laciniatd). Leaves with long narrow teeth, ending in 

 long subulate points. 



1 Clos, in Bull, Soc. Bot. France, xiii. 96 (1866). 



8 Dode, in Bull. Soc. Dendr. France, 1908, p. 147. 3 Laubhoh-bcnennttng, 63 (1903). 



4 There are small trees of thft silver and golden variegated forms at Aldenham which are very handsome and well worth 

 growing. A curious purple-leaved variety is described on p. 852. (H. J. E.) 



5 At Verrieres, near Paris, there is a tree, 28 feet high and 5 feet in girth, which has a few branches with normal 

 foliage, all the others bearing leaves deeply and irregularly lobed. These two different kinds of branches bear fruit, which 

 reproduces, when sown, seedlings with the form of foliage from which the nuts have been derived. Cf. Horlus I'ilmorinianus, 

 56 (1906). There is a fine specimen of this variety at Murthly Castle ; and Mr. Renwick has sent us specimens from a 

 large tree at Finlayson, Renfrewshire, a few of the leaves of which are of the heterophylla type. 



