194 WILSON EXPEDITION TO CHINA 



with a trunk from 1.5 to 2 m. in girth and is an important constituent of the woods 

 and forests. It is readily distinguished from the other old world species of the 

 section Eucastanon by the complete absence of lepidote glands on the under surface 

 of the leaves, which on the same tree are glabrous or nearly so or are densely cov- 

 ered with a nearly white felt of stellate hairs. In its typical form the branchlet is 

 sparsely or densely pilose, and this is especially the case on vigorous shoots and on 

 young trees, but with a little searching such hairs can be found on every tree. As a 

 rule, however, on adult trees the branchlets are densely or sparsely clothed with 

 a short, gray velutinous pubescence only. The winter-buds are short and broadly 

 ovoid and pubescent. The leaves are very variable in size, the dentation is very 

 irregular, and the teeth are broad and triangular and terminate in a long aristate 

 point or they are reduced to a short mucro. The male aments are variable in length, 

 but are usually shorter than the leaves; the fruit is also variable in size and there 

 are forms in which the nut is as large as that of the best forms of the European 

 Chestnut (C. sativa Miller). The involucral spines at maturity are pale straw color 

 and are densely clothed with appressed villose pubescence. 



This Chinese Chestnut has been confused with C. sativa Miller, which grows 

 in the Mediterranean region and eastward to the Caucasus and in northern Persia, 

 and is distinguished by the presence in fewer or greater numbers of minute lepidote 

 glands scattered over the under surface of the leaves and occasionally confined 

 to the primary and secondary veins and tissues nearby; the shoot too is different, 

 being nearly glabrous, and clothed only with a scurvy puberulous indumentum; 

 the male aments are often longer than the leaves, though this character has little 

 or no significance. 



Castanea mollissima was first introduced to cultivation at this Arboretum by 

 Professor Sargent, who in 1903 sent seeds which he purchased in a market at 

 Peking. The plants raised from these seeds have proved hardy here and have 

 grown well. They are now quite established and have produced fruit. They have 

 shown no signs of the dreaded chestnut-bark disease. But in China this species 

 is subject to this disease, for in a note on his No. 1409 from Nanking, Meyer 

 says, " the tree was attacked by the bark disease Diaportha parasitica Murrill." 



In regard to C. Bungeana Blume there can be no question that it is identical 

 with his C. mollissima. Seemen first took up this latter name, and as priority of 

 position has no standing under the international rules, C. Bungeana Blume be- 

 comes a synonym. Hayata's C. sativa, var. formosana (in Jour. Coll. Sci. Tokyo, 

 XXX. 304 [1911]), of which we have seen no specimen, in all probabiUty is referable 

 to C. mollissima Blume. 



The Chinese name for this Chestnut is Pan-U, and the nuts are a valued article 

 of food. 



Pictures of this tree will be found under Nos. 506, 540 of the collection of Wil- 

 son's photographs, and also in his Vegetation of Westerri China, Nos. 146, 147. 



Castanea Seguinii Dode in Bull. Soc. Dendr. France, 1908, 152, 

 fig.; in Fedde, Rep. Spec. Nov. X. 240 (1911). — Schneider, III. Handb. 

 Lauhholzk. II. 899 (1912). — Wilson, Naturalist West. China, II. 32 

 (1913).— Koidzumi in Tokyo Bot. Mag. XXX. 100 (1916). 



Castanea vulgaris, var. Japonica Hance in Jour. Bot. XII. 262 (non A. De Can- 

 dolle) (1874). — Franchet in Nouv. Arch. Mus. Paris, ser. 2, VII. 87 {PI. 

 David. 1. 277) (1884). 



Castanea sativa, var. japonica Seemen in Bot. Jahrb. XXIX. 287 (1900). 



Castanea Davidii Dode in Bull. Soc. Dendr. France, 1908, 153, fig. ; in Fedde, 



