2/2 



The Chestnuts 



In addition to the two arborescent species, a low shrub, Castanea nana 

 Muhlenberg, also called Chinquapin, occurs in sandy barrens of the Gulf States; 

 it has underground stems, but may not be distinct from C. pumila. 



Our arborescent species are: 



Leaves densely tomentose beneath; small tree or shrub. 

 Leaves smooth on both sides; large forest tree. 



1. C. pumila. 



2. C. dentata. 



I. CHINQUAPIN — Castanea pumila (Linnaeus) Miller 



Fagus pumila Linnaeus 



This small tree, or more often a shrub, of dry, sandy soils, from New Jersey 

 to Indiana and southward to Florida, Missouri and Texas, reaches its greatest 



development in Arkansas, where it attains a 

 maximum height of about i6 meters, vdth a 

 trunk diameter of i m. 



The trunk is usually short. The branches are 

 slender and spreading, forming a roimdish tree. 

 The bark is about i6 mm. thick, somewhat fur- 

 rowed and broken into loose plates of a Ught 

 brown color. The twigs are slender, pale woolly 

 at first, soon becoming smoothish, red-brown, and 

 finally darker brown and bearing many small 

 lenticels; buds axillary, ovoid 4 mm. long and 

 covered vrath scurfy red scales; there are no 

 terminal buds. The leaves are thick and firm, 

 oblong or obovate, sharp-pointed or rounded at 

 the apex, gradually narrowed toward the often 

 imequal, roimded or cuneate base, sharply toothed 

 on the margin, reddish tinged when unfolding, becoming yellovrish green, 

 smooth and shining above, pale, finely hairy, and prominendy straight-veined be- 

 neath^ The leaf-stalk is stout, flattened above, hairy, 6 to 12 mm. long; the yel- 

 lowish green stipules are smooth and soon fall away. The flowers appear in May 

 or June, the staminate catkins more or less spreading, 10 to 20 cm. long, vrith a 

 stout hairy axis; the upper catkins are from 5 to 15 cm. long, bearing the pistillate 

 flowers at the base, which are usually scattered, sometimes crowded; the in- 

 volucre is sessile or nearly so, one-flowered, seldom 2-flowered, glandular and 

 whitish hairy. The fruit ripens from August to October, is subglobose, 3 to 4 

 cm. in diameter, densely covered veith stiff spines and usually containing only one 

 nut, seldom 2; the inner surface of the bur is softly silky; the nut is ovoid to 

 ovoid-cylindric, roimded at the base, tapering to the sharp-pointed more or less 

 hairy apex, bright brovyn and shining, i to 2 cm. long, thin-shelled; the seed is very 

 sweet. 



The wood is hard, strong, coarse-grained, and brown; its specific gravity is 



Fig. 230. — Chinquapin. 



