THE ROMANCE OF OUR TREES 



There is a strong family likeness among all the Chest- 

 nuts, so much so that many botanists have united them 

 all into one species, but the eight species may be dis- 

 tinguished by the absence or presence and distribu- 

 tion of minute, scale-like glands and of hairs on the 

 leaves, and by other less obvious technical characters. 

 The European (C. sativa) is the best known and the 

 most famous of all Chestnuts but unfortunately it is 

 not hardy in the colder parts of this country. It is 

 much cultivated in Italy, Spain, and France, where 

 the nut is a staple article of food. In England the 

 Chestnut has been widely planted but except in a few 

 favoured localities the fruit does not properly mature. 

 This Chestnut is one of the largest and noblest of 

 European trees; it is indeed the largest of the genus 

 and trees loo feet tall and 20 feet in girth of trunk 

 with a wide-spreading crown of massive branches are 

 not uncommon. The nuts are usually three in each 

 spiny, round husk, occasionally more, sometimes one 

 only. There are many garden varieties and some 

 with a very large-sized nut are grown in Madeira. 



Rivalling in size of nut the European species is the 

 Japanese C. crenata, wide-spread in Japan and in 

 Korea. 1 1 is hardier than the European Chestnut but 

 is prone to disease. 1 1 is not a very large tree but some 

 of the named sorts like "Tamba" or "Mammoth" 

 have huge nuts but the flavour is rather inferior. 



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