286 TREES OF MINNESOTA. 



FAGACEAE. OAK FAMILY. 



Genus CASTAN^A. 



Trees or shrubs with watery juice and serrate straight veined 

 leaves. Flowers monoecious, strong smelling, in axillary cat- 

 kins near the ends of the branches, appearing after the leaves. 

 The staminate flowers in erect or spreading yellowish cylindrical 

 catkins; calyx mostly six-parted; stamens numerous, some- 

 times with abortive ovary; filaments slender. t The fertile 

 flowers usually two to five in an ovoid scaly prickly involucre 

 at the base of the androgynous catkins; calyx with a six-lobed 

 border crowning the mostly six-celled ovary and usually with 

 four to twelve abortive stamens; ovules two in each cavity, 

 but only one to each ovary usually maturing; styles corre- 

 sponding in number with the cavities in the ovary, slender, 

 exserted; stigmas small. Involucre of fertile flowers enlarging 

 and becoming globose, mostly four-valved; in fruit a thick, 

 very prickly bur inclosing from one to three ovoid nuts. 

 Cotyledons very thick, cohering anil remaining underground in 

 germination. 



Castanea dentata. Chestnut. 



Leaves oblong lanceolate, pointed, acute at base, serrate with 

 coarse pointed teeth; when mature smooth and green on both 

 sides. Fruit sweet and edible, ripening in autumn. A large 

 forest tree with gray bark. 



Distribution.' Maine and Ontario to Delaware, Michigan, 

 Tennessee and Mississippi. 



Propagation. Most commonly by seed, which should be sown 

 in autumn or stratified over winter and sown in the spring. 

 The seed is very difficult to preserve in good condition for 

 germination unless carefully stratified out of doors. When 

 dried it soon loses its vitality and when stratified in the cellar 

 is very liable to mould. The foreign sorts, of which there are 

 a number in cultivation, are mostly propagated by grafting on 

 the species. 



Properties of ivood. Light, soft, not strong, coarse grained, 

 liable to check and warp in drying, easily split, very durable in 



