34 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



A PERFECT LEAF OF THE BUTTONWOOD 



TREE (Platanus occidental!*). 

 Fig. 14 This shows the under side. Dilated hase 

 of petiole also shown. 



ed, and finally so admirably set 

 among others as to make it a beau- 

 tiful and useful part of the great 

 green dome that hides the limbs 

 in summer time." This is a per- 

 fect description of the foliage. 



All who live in the country 

 where chestnut trees grow are fa- 

 miliar with their blossoms those 

 dainty, whitish catkins, often six 

 inches long in charming clusters. 

 Chestnut trees often attain a 

 great age and a correspondingly 

 enormous size. The old Mount 

 .(Etna giant is over two thousand 

 years old ; its hollow trunk once 



held an hundred mounted horsemen at one time, it being about 

 sixty feet in diameter inside measurement. It was destroyed by an erup- 

 tion of the volcano. A tree of this species near Washington, D. C, has a 

 diameter of ten feet ; and, while presenting evidence of decline, it is still 

 in a fair state of preservation, leafing out in great shape every summer. As 

 most of us already know, the wood of the chestnut is of great value, being 

 used for a great many purposes. Then, too, the yield of nuts is sometimes 

 very great and thousands of dollars worth of them are annually sold in the 

 markets throughout this country. 



In the Chinquapin (C. pumila) we have a veritable dwarf chestnut in 

 nearly all particulars (Fig. 12) ; in most cases it rarely exceeds the pro- 

 portions of a shrub, and is, from tips of root to crown, chestnut all over. It 

 grows in pretty much the same places, though it is probably oftener found 

 along the edges of marshes and swamps, ranging from the Middle Atlantic 



States to the Gulf, and westward to 

 Texas. Chinquapin wood, selected 

 from the largest specimens, is quite 

 as good as that furnished by its giant 

 cousin, and may, with advantage, be 

 used for the same purposes, being 

 particularly useful for railroad ties 

 and fence posts. 



Speaking of Chestnut trees recalls 

 the fact that among the oaks in this 

 country we have a Chestnut Oak 

 (Quereus prinus), which has been so 

 named for the reason that its leaves 

 more or less closely resemble those 

 of the chestnut tree. The leaves 

 of the former, however, vary consid- 

 erably in size and outline a fact that 

 will be appreciated by comparing 

 those shown in Fig. 10 of this article. 

 terminals of branches of the but- In Fi S- " have the leaves of the 

 pie in this country who are familiar ^ood in R the early spein/'"'""" tw0 trees P laced side b y side > so that 

 with it. As stated above, Miss Roe:- ^- > 1 ( tne i r similarities and differences may 



' v "& Fig. 13 The tender, very pale green leaves of ' 



ers may have been gruilty of a little 'I 1 ' 5 tree a r e just unfoldin K. and ma "y stages of De recognized at a glance. We should 



J the flower-heads are shown. _ 



slip when she gave us the distribu- especially note the fine little prickles 



tion of this tree, but not when- she says in the next along the margins of the chestnut leaf, while the borders 



SEED BALLS OF THE SWEET GUM TREE 

 {Liquidambar styraciflua). 



Fig. 7 The usual single ball is seen in the upper 

 left hand corner; the other two bunches represent 

 rather a rare condition when from two to eight 

 balls fuse together into one mass. 



cies of these trees, there are the 

 Chestnuts (Castanea) and the Oaks 

 (Quercus), of which latter there are 

 a great many kinds. 



Oaks and Beeches will be refer- 

 red to again further along in the 

 present series of articles ; while here 

 a few paragraphs may well be devot- 

 ed to our country-wide favorite, the 

 Chestnut tree (C. dentata), and its 

 dwarf and near relative in the same 

 genus, the Chinquapin (C. pumila). 

 In Europe and Japan they have other 

 kinds of chestnuts from ours ; but the 

 nuts in some instances are not so 

 good, though the sweet chestnut of 

 Spain and Italy (C. sativa) is very 

 good and wholesome. The Japanese 

 species has been introduced into some 

 parts of this country. Our well 

 known tree flourishes from southern 

 Maine to Ontario, westward and 

 southward to the Gulf. Miss Rogers 

 erroneously claims that it is not found 

 south of Delaware ; but the tree oc- 

 curs abundantly in Maryland' and the 

 District of Columbia. 



It is a splendid tree in all particu- 

 lars, and justly commands the love 

 and admiration of thousands of peo- 



paragraph: "The elegance of chestnut foliage must 

 strike the most casual observer. Each leaf is so long 

 and tapering, so regularly veined and toothed, so polish- 



of the chestnut oak leaf are in elegant, wavy outline. 



The acorns of the chestnut oak are very large, rather 

 sweet, and have a way of sometimes sprouting before 



