Castanea 855 



The low grassy hills of the Yangtse valley and the hills in Chekiang are often 

 covered in places with a scrubby growth of chestnut bushes, scarcely ever over 

 5 feet in height. This is a distinct species, 1 and corresponds in many respects to 

 C. pumila of America, the branchlets and petioles being covered with a dense, bristly 

 pubescence, and the fruits extremely small, usually three in each involucre. This 

 has been supposed to be Castanea mollissima, Blume, 2 an imperfectly known species. 



The Chinese have distinguished from the most ancient times two kinds of 

 chestnut, classically known as the li and the erk. The former, now known as the 

 pan-li is the cultivated tree, the latter, known as the mao-li, is the wild form of the 

 species, which produces remarkably sweet small fruit. These have been noticed by 

 many observers, as by Abel 3 at Tatung on the Yangtze, by Pere David 4 at Kiukiang, 

 and by Fortune 6 near Ningpo, who introduced the small -fruited chestnut into 

 England in 1853; but we are unacquainted with any trees raised at that time. 

 Similar small-fruited chestnuts are known in Japan, and were exhibited in London 7 

 in 1873. (A. H.) 



The chestnut is widely distributed in Japan where it is called " kuri," from Kiusiu 

 and Shikoku, through the greater part of the mountain forests of Hondo, and in 

 the plains as far north as central Hokkaido. It is usually mixed with other deciduous 

 trees, but in some places forms pure forests of small area. Its wood is preferred for 

 railway sleepers to any other timber, but is not much valued for building purposes. 

 Though, according to Sargent, 8 it does not attain any great size, yet I measured an 

 old tree in the Atera valley which was 15 feet in girth (Plate 237). 



The tree is commonly seen on dry and barren hillsides in the form of coppice, 

 which is cut every few years for firewood. It is also cultivated for its fruit, and 

 several large-fruited varieties are grown which Sargent 8 says are equal in size to the 

 best in southern Europe, and are largely consumed as food in the towns, and also 

 exported from Kobe to San Francisco. These varieties are more precocious than the 

 European tree, bearing abundant fruit when only 10 or 12 feet high, and he recom- 

 mends their introduction from Aomori in the north of Hondo, as being more likely 

 to endure cold winters than the French or Kobe varieties. 



The Japanese chestnut was introduced into the United States 9 about 1891, and 

 Rehder 10 states that it is shrubby and usually begins to fruit when about six years old. 

 It has proved hardy as far north as Massachusetts. So far as we know it has not yet 

 been introduced into England. (H. J. E.) 



1 The shrubby chestnut of China is considered by Dode, in Bull. Soc. Detidr. France, 1908, pp. 151, 152, 153, to 

 constitute three new species, C. hupehensis, C. Seguinii, and C. Davidii. 



* Mus. Bot. Lugd. Bat. i. 286 (1850). Cf. Diels, Flora von Central China, 288 (1901). 



3 Narrative of a Journey in China, 165 (1818). 4 Plants Davidiana, i. 277 (1884). 



6 Residence among the Chinese, 51, 144 (1857). 8 Gard. Chron. i860, p. 170. 



7 Ibid. 1875, P- 2 7- 8 Forest Flora of Japan, 69 (1894). 



9 Cf. Bailey in Amer. Garden, May 1891, who gives a description and figure of the tree ; and Garden and Forest, viii. 

 460 (1895). W. A. Taylor, in Cycl. Amer. /fort. i. 294 (1900), who enumerates nineteen varieties of the Japanese chestnut, 

 which have been introduced of late years into North America, gives the date of the first introduction as 1876. 



10 Cycl. Amer. Hort. i. 257 (1900). 



