The Chestnuts 



pointed, small, lateral. Leaves alternate, 6 to 8 inches long, 

 tapering at both ends, strong ribbed, toothed, shining above, paler 

 lining; autumn colour yellow; petioles short, stout. Flowers 

 monoecious, in July; staminate catkins, slender, 4 to 6 inches 

 long, clustered at bases of leafy shoots, spreading, pollen abun- 

 dant; pistillate, solitary or few, short stalked on base of staminate 

 catkins or in axils of leaves; involucre, prickly, green, styles thrust 

 out, stigmas branched. Fruit 2 to 3 compressed nuts, thin 

 shelled, in 4-valved spiny bur, 2 to 4 inches in diameter, globular, 

 opening after frosts. Preferred habitat, strong, well-drained soil; 

 pastures, hillsides, rocky woods. Distribution, southern Maine to 

 Michigan; south to Delaware and Indiana; along mountains to 

 Alabama and Mississippi. Uses: Valuable lumber tree, used for 

 interior woodwork of houses, furniture, railroad ties, fence posts 

 and fuel. A handsome shade and ornamental tree. Nuts com- 

 mercially important. 



The elegance of chestnut foliage must strike the most casual 

 observer. Each leaf is so long and tapering, so regularly veined 

 and toothed, so polished, and finally so admirably set among the 

 others as to make it a beautiful and useful part of the great green 

 dome that hides the limbs in summer time. 



Buds of the chestnut are small and plump set askew on the 

 smooth winter twigs. They open late in spring. The fresh leaves 

 make the neighbour oaks look dingy. The other trees have all 

 done blooming but the lindens and the catalpas when the chestnut 

 dome on the hillside gradually brightens from green to pale gold, 

 and each twig holds up its feathery plume, and waves it, pollen 

 laden, in the wind. July has come, and the fields of grain have 

 passed into stacks and stubble. The chestnut takes on its flower 

 crown to harmonise with the golden midsummer landscape. It is 

 the most' beautiful thing in the woods at this time. A solitary 

 tree on a lawn or in a lonesome pasture is a joy to every beholder. 



A near view of the tree shows along the bases of certain 

 scantily furnished spikes a few green scaly flowers, with pale 

 yellow threads extended at the tips. These are the chestnuts in 

 embryo, v/ith stigmas reaching out for the pollen that "sets seed." 

 Two or three, or sometimes only one, of these flowers are fertilised. 

 They develop rapidly, and by the middle of August the tree bristles 

 with spiny green globes. 



The first frost is the signal for the splitting of the husks into 

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