THE ROMANCE OF OUR TREES 



growing in mixed forests on the higher mountains. 

 I introduced it in 1907 to the Arnold Arboretum 

 where it has proved quite hardy. 



We need say nothing here about the American C. 

 dentata but a passing word is due the Chinquapin or 

 shrubby Chestnut (C pumila) . This bush or small tree 

 is distributed from southern Pennsylvania to north- 

 ern Florida and westward to southern Arkansas and 

 eastern Texas. It bears usually in each husk a single 

 nut which though very small is sweet and good to 

 eat. This species in the hands of the hybridists may 

 be the progenitor of a race of Bush-chestnuts of 

 great value for orchards. As before mentioned 

 Doctor Van Fleet has already made some very prom- 

 ising crosses. There is no reason why future genera- 

 tions should not have a strain of Bush-chestnuts 

 bearing fruits as large as the European and Japanese 

 kinds, and as hardy and as sweet in flavour as the 

 Chinese. In the southeastern United States, in the 

 neighbourhood of the coast, from North Carolina to 

 western Florida and west to Louisiana grows the dwarf 

 C. alnifolia in which the husk is only sparingly clad with 

 spines. This is a shrub or low tree from 10 to 30 feet 

 tall. There is in China a Bush-chestnut (C. Seguinii) 

 which ought to be re-introduced into our gardens. It 

 has long been known and Robert Fortune introduced 

 it into England in the fifties of the last century, 

 190 



