194 THE TREE BOOK 



precious load to taste the nectar in the shorter 

 catkins borne at the tips of the branches. The 

 latter contain the pistillate flowers, and here the 

 fruit develops in a green prickly husk, which 

 opens at Jack Frost's conunand into four sec- 

 tions, disclosing the brown-polished, white- 

 tipped nuts, slightly flattened on one or per- 

 haps both sides. 



The chestnut belongs to the great race of 

 cupbearers and is classed with the beech family. 

 In the Old World it is listed with the forest 

 trees. Italian and Swiss peasantry depend 

 upon chestnuts for a large share of their food. 

 Boiled chestnuts are a part of every noonday 

 meal. Cake and bread are made from po- 

 lenta — chestnut flour. European chestnuts are 

 larger than ours, but not so sweet. The chest- 

 nut grows very rapidly, but it is comparatively 

 worthless as a timber tree. The reddish-brown 

 wood is soft and weak and warps badly when 

 dried. 



The horse-chestnut is familiar to most coun- 

 try-boys and girls because of its nuts, but it is 

 not a native tree, having been introduced to this 

 country from the mountains of northern Greece. 

 Nor is it a member of the chestnut species. It 

 is a "horse of another color" entirely, and be- 

 longs to the soapberry family, being an own 



