WESTERN CHINKAPIN. 91 



them. Twenty-five cents per gallon is the market price. The trees are large here. 

 A few are 3 feet in diameter and 60 feet high. I frequently see them 1 or 2 feet in 

 diameter. As a lasting timber it is only excelled by good cedar. " 



ARKANSAS. F. M. Liner, Brightwater: "The chinkapin grows wild here. It 

 seems at home, and is much in character like the chestnut, and it bears well, while 

 we have no wild chestnuts." 



E. G. Rhodes, Elixir: "Chinkapin is plentiful in the wild state. There is no 

 market for them " 



MISSISSIPPI. J. L. Barclay, Sandersville : "The chinkapin does well cultivated. 

 I have a choice variety." 



E. W. Lyon, Heidelburg: "The chinkapin is a good thing on a worn-out ridge." 



LOUISIANA. G. W. Stoner, Jewella: "The chinkapin grows in places here, and 

 sells for 20 cents per pound." 



FLORIDA. August Leyoraz, Francis: "There are two species of the chinkapin 

 growing along the lakes and on sandy hills. One grows 3 to 4 feet high and the other 

 25 to 30 feet high." 



TEXAS. D. O. Stuart, Mount Selma: "The chinkapin is the only species of 

 chestnut growing wild in this country." 



Otto Locke, New Braunfels: "The chinkapin grows to perfection here, 2 feet in 

 diameter, but most of the large trees have been cut down. The wood is very durable. 

 The Japanese chestnut has been grafted on it with success." 



WESTERN CHINKAPIN. 



(Caatanopsis crysophylla A. D. C.) 

 [Plate 15, figs. 1 and 2.] 



Professor Sargent states the habitat of this nut is "the Cascade Mountains, 

 Oregon, below 4,000 feet elevation, south along the western slopes of the Sierra 

 Nevadas, and through the California coast ranges to San Bernardino and San Jacinto 

 Mountains." In Mendocino County, Cal., and northward, it forms a large tree 50 to 

 125 feet high and 2 or 3 feet in diameter. The tree has evergreen leaves, smooth and 

 shiny above, but thickly covered underneath with yellow scale. The form of leaf, 

 flower ameuts, and bur inclosing the fruit is somewhat similar to that found in the 

 chestnut. The fruit is a rounded, three-cornered nut, closely resembling a very large 

 and plump beech nut. It is borne singly in a bur that has divergent, many-branched 

 spines. According to Wickson ' the most common form is the variety minor, a shrub 

 from 2 to 6 feet high, bearing abundant crops of nuts. E. C. Russell, Sweet Home, 

 Oreg., writes: "It is our only nut besides the hazeluut. It is a small evergreen tree, 

 which produces a crop of nuts every second year. The nuts are three-cornered, about 

 the size of a small hazelnut, and have a soft shell. No attempt has been made to 

 cultivate them. The tree is rather small, and seldom reaches 2 feet in diameter. It 

 is most frequently found on stony land, although the largest trees with which I am 

 acquainted are on land which is not stony. It is found only on dry land. The form 

 of growth is equally conical. It is valuable as an ornamental tree, if it can be suc- 

 cessfully cultivated. It blooms in June and ripens its nuts in September of the next 

 year. The wood, when it grows large enough, is valuable for furniture and takes a 

 fine polish." 



1 California Fruits, page 59. 



