CHESTNUTS 217 



does the American chestnut, but needs constant at- 

 tention, usually failing before many crops have been 

 borne. 



CHINESE CHESTNUT 



The Chinese chestnut, a very beautiful tree, is in 

 my experience the most resistant of the introduced 

 species. It comes from the original home of the 

 blight, and as a result of natural selection we might 

 anticipate that this would be the most resistant 

 species, representing survival of the fittest. The 

 Chinese chestnut makes a beautiful lawn tree with 

 its glossy foliage and its heavy masses of burrs. Its 

 nuts are less coarse than those of the European 

 chestnuts, although not quite close rivals of the 

 native American chestnut on the score of quality. 



ALDERLEAF CHESTNUT 



The alderleaf chestnut is one of the most beautiful 

 of shrubs, particularly in the trailing form which 

 sometimes occurs. It is evergreen in Georgia. When 

 growing at Stamford, Connecticut, it loses most of 

 its leaves in winter, although I have sometimes found 

 an occasional green leaf in spring, one that had been 

 buried beneath the snow or protected by autumn 

 leaves. The nut is not large enough to have much 

 market value, but none of the bushes of this species 

 on my grounds have shown any blight at all as yet, 

 and we may use the alderleaf chestnut profitably 

 perhaps for hybridization purposes. 



