FAGACE^ 233 



staminate aments \' long when they first appear, pubescent, green below, bright red at 

 apex, becoming when fully grown 4 '-6' long, with stout hoary tomentose stems and crowded 

 or scattered flower-clusters; androgynous aments silvery tomentose, 3'-4' long; involucres 

 1-flowered, scattered at the base of the ament or often spicate and covering its lower half, 

 sessile or short-stalked. Fruit: involucre !'-!' in diameter, with thin walls covered with 

 crowded fascicles of slender spines tomentose toward the base; nut ovoid, terete, rounded 

 at the slightly narrowed base, gradually narrowed and pointed at apex, more or less coated 

 with silvery white pubescence, dark chestnut-brown, very lustrous, f'-l' long, \' thick, 

 with a thin shell lined with a coat of lustrous hoary tomentum, and a sweet seed. 



A round-topped tree, rarely 50 high, with a short straight trunk 2-3 in diameter, 

 slender spreading branches, and branchlets coated at first with pale tomentum, becoming 

 during iheir first winter pubescent or remaining tomentose at the apex, bright red-brown, 

 glabrous, lustrous, olive-green or orange-brown during their second season and ultimately 

 darker; east of the Mississippi River often a shrub spreading into broad thickets by prolific 

 stolons, with numerous intricately branched stems often only 4 or 5 tall. Winter-buds 

 ovoid, or oval, about \' long, clothed when they first appear in summer w 7 ith thick hoary 

 tomentum, becoming red during the winter and scurfy-pubescent. Bark \'-\' thick, light 

 brown tinged with red, slightly furrowed and broken on the surface into loose plate-like 

 scales. Wood light, hard, strong, coarse-grained, dark brow r n, with thin hardly distin- 

 guishable sap wood of 3 or 4 layers of annual growth; used for fence-posts, rails, and railway- 

 ties. The sweet nuts are sold in the markets of the western and southern states. 



Distribution. Dry sandy ridges, rich hillsides and the borders of swamps; southern New 

 Jersey and Pennsylvania to central (Lake County) and western Florida and westward 

 through the Gulf States to the valley of the Neches River, Texas, and through Arkan- 

 sas to eastern Oklahoma and southwestern Missouri; on the Appalachian Mountains as- 

 cending to altitudes of 4500; most abundant and of its largest size in southern Arkan- 

 sas and eastern Texas. 



3. Castanea alnifolia Nutt. Chinquapin 



A low shrub spreading into broad thickets by underground stems, with leaves pale pubes- 

 cent on the lower surface; and distributed in the neighborhood of the coast from the valley 

 of the Cape Fear River, North Carolina, to southern Georgia. Passing into 



Castanea alnifolia var. floridana Sarg. Chinquapin 



Leaves oblong-obovate to elliptic, acute, acuminate or rounded at apex, gradually 

 narrowed and cuneate or rounded at base, irregularly sinuate-toothed with apiculate teeth. 



