Trees of New York State 359 



ovary; pistil consisting of a S-celled trigonous overy surmounted by 3 filiform, 

 recurved styles which are longer than the involucre and stigniatic at the top. 

 Fruit a woody, thick-walled, ovoid burr covered A\'ith stout recui-ved prickles, 

 opening at maturity to set free the 2 (1-3) ovoid, trigonous, lustrous brown 

 nuts; seed albuminous, oily, edible. 



THE CHESTNUTS. Genus CASTANEA (Touin.) Hill. 



Trees or shrubs with astringent sap, terete twigs, furrowed bark, 

 alternate straight-veined leaves, monoecious flowers appearing 

 after the leaves, and a fruit which is a prickly burr enclosing one 

 or more nuts. Castanca is wholly confined to the northern hemi- 

 sphere and is widely distributed through ea.stern North America, 

 southern Europe, northern Africa, Asia, and Japan. Four or 

 five species have been described including the one American 

 species, Castanea dent at a (Marsh.) Borkli. 



Leaves alternate, simple, deciduous, ovate to oblong-lanceolate, coarsely 

 serrate with secondary' veins running into the teeth, short-petioled; stipules 

 linear-lanceolate to ovate, caducous. Flowers monoecious, ill-smelling, appear- 

 ing in midsummer after the leaves; staminate flowers in 3-7-flowered cymes 

 in the axils of minute ovate bracts, the clusters borne in elongated, inter- 

 rupted, simple aments which arise from the axils of the ixuier bud-scales of 

 the upper bud or from the axils of the lower leaves of the year; calyx-tube 

 straw-colored, puberulous, deeply divided into 6 ovate, rounded segments; 

 stamens 10-20, exserted, ^^^.th filiform filaments and globose or ovoid anthers ; 

 pistillate flowers scattered or spicate at the base of the shorter, persistent 

 androg;\'nous aments from the axils of the upper leaves, ses.sile, solitary or 

 2-3 together and suiTounded with an involucre of numerous acute green 

 bracts, the whole subtended by a bract and 2 bracteoles ; calyx urn-shaped, 

 6-lobed, adnate to the ovary; 6 staminodia present; pistil consisting of a 

 6-celled ovary surmounted by 6 linear, spreading, white styles which are hairy 

 below and bear terminal stigmas. Fruit a densely-spiny burr, maturing in 

 the autumn and dehiscing by 2-4 valves to expose an inner surface clothed 

 with lustrous pubescence, and 1-3 ovate, acute chestnut-brown nuts which 

 are pubescent toward the apex and marked at the base by a large, conspicuous, 

 rounded scar; seed usually solitary, ex.'tlbuminous, sweet and edible; cotylc- 

 uons fleshy. 



THE OAKS. Genus QUERCUS. (Tourn.) L. 

 This genus comprises nearly three hundred trees and shrubs 

 widely spread in various habitats over tlie temperate regions of 

 the northern hemisphere and the high mountains of the tropics. 

 In the New World they range from Canada southward through 

 Mexico and Central America to the mountains of Columbia and 

 in the Old World through Europe and Asia to the Indian Archi- 

 pelago, the Philippines and Japan. Fifty-odd species occur within 

 the boundaries of the United States, most of which are arborescent. 



