THE CHESTNUT 55 



had been blended of all the different kinds of 

 chestnuts that could be obtained. 



These included, in addition to the Japanese 

 species just cited, representatives of the Euro- 

 pean chestnut in several of its varieties — one of 

 which came from China — and of the native 

 American chestnut of the familiar tj^e; and 

 also the little native species known as the 

 Chinquapin. 



It is interesting to record that the chinquapin, 

 with its almost insignificant nut, crossed readily 

 with the Japanese species, the mammoth nut of 

 which w^ould seem to place it in quite another 

 class. 



But there is apparently a very close affinity 

 between all the different chestnuts. All of them 

 have varied and thus perpetuated forms that 

 more or less bridge the gap between the typical 

 representatives of the different species, and, so 

 far as my observations go, all of them may read- 

 ily be interbred. In a word, the chestnut fur- 

 nishes most plastic material for the purposes of 

 the plant developer. Just how I have utilized 

 that material will appear as we proceed. 



At the time when the chestnuts were received 

 from Japan, there were already at hand trees of 

 the European and American species of various 

 sizes. So soon as the Japanese seedlings were of 



