Castanopsis ^S^9 



apex, often contracted at the apex into a short broad point ; thick, coriaceous, 

 entire in margin ; dark green, shining and glabrous above ; under surface bright 

 yellow, coated with minute scales ; lateral nerves pinnate, twelve to sixteen pairs, 

 looping just before they reach the margin ; petiole |^ to ^ in. long. 



Staminate catkins simple or branched ; stamens six to ten. Pistillate flowers 

 borne on short separate catkins or scattered at the base of the staminate catkin. 

 Fruit-involucre spiny, like that of the common chestnut, irregularly four-valved, 

 containing one or occasionally two nuts ; nuts ^ in. long, angled, with a hard shell 

 and a sweet kernel. 



The typical form described above is a tree, with large leaves, which gradually 

 passes at high elevations into a shrub, distinguished as follows : — 



1. Var. minor, A. de Candolle, Prod. xvi. 2, p. no (1864). 



Vzx. pumila, Vasey, in Rept. Comm. Agric. 1875, p. 176 (1876). 

 Castanea chrysophylla, var. minor, Bentham, PL Hartweg. 337 (1857). 



A shrub 2 to 15 ft, high. Leaves similar to those of the type in shape, but 

 smaller, i to 2 in. long, very golden beneath. 



This variety occurs in the Santa Cruz mountains and northwards as far as the 

 south fork of the Salmon river. It is often gregarious on chaparral slopes and on 

 the pine barrens of the Mendocino coast. 



2. Var. sempervirens, Henry. 



Castanopsis sempervirens, Dudley, in Merriam, Biol. Survey ML Shasta, 142 (1899). 

 Castanea sempervirens, Kellogg, in Froc. Calif. Acad. i. 71 (1855). 



A shrub, I to 8 ft. high. Leaves elliptical, i to 2^ in. long, variable at the base, 

 rounded or obtuse at the apex, pale yellow beneath. This is retained by Jepson, 

 Silva of California, 241 (1910), as a distinct species, on account of the usually more 

 numerous (ten to seventeen) stamens ; but he acknowledges that there is no differ- 

 ence in the fruits. It grows on arid mountain slopes from Mt. Jacinto northwards 

 through the Sierra Nevada and coast ranges to Mt. Shasta at 3000 to 8000 ft. 

 elevation. 



This species, in its typical form as a large tree, occurs in the Redwood belt of 

 Mendocino and Humboldt counties of California, and northwards in the Siskiyou, 

 Coast Range and Cascades of Oregon, as far as the valley of the Columbia river. 

 Southward and eastward in California, only the shrubby forms occur. As a tree it 

 appears to be rare, fruiting very sparingly, so that good seed can scarcely ever be 

 procured. Jepson states that the largest trees now existing scarcely exceed 115 ft. 

 in height ; but are occasionally 4 to 6 ft, in diameter, 



C. chrysophylla was discovered in 1830 by David Douglas on the Grand Rapids 

 of the river Columbia in Oregon, at Cape Orford, and near Mt. Hood. Seeds were 

 sent to Kew, by the collector Burke,^ in 1845, from which a solitary plant was raised, 

 which produced fruit when only 5 ft. high in 1856. It was reintroduced by William 

 Lobb, who^ sent seeds to Messrs. Veitch in 1853; but, so far as I can judge, the 



1 Cf. Bot. Mag. t. 4953. A MS. note at Kew states that Burke collected in North America in 1845. 



2 Hortus Veitchii, 393 (1906). 



