FAGACE/E— BEECH FAMILY 



CHINQUAPIN 



Castanea pionila. 



From Castanea, a town in Thessaly, or from another town 

 of that name in Pontus ; the ancient name of the genus. 



A shrub, rarely a tree, growing in dry soil. Ranges from New 

 jersey to Florida, from Pennsylvania to Texas. 



Leaves. — Alternate, simple, pinnately veined, veins very prom- 

 inent beneath, three to six inches long, wedge-shaped at base, 

 sharply serrate, acute at apex. They come out of the bud pale 

 green, shining and woolly; when full grown are dark green and 

 smooth above, densely white tomentose beneath. In autumn 

 they turn a bright, clear yellow. Petioles short, stout, slightly 

 angled. Stipules fugitive. 



Flowers. — June, July : monoecious, fragrant. Staminate 

 catkins erect or somewhat spreading, three to five inches long, 

 about a quarter of an inch in diameter. Pistillate flowers are 

 borne in prickly involucres at the base of the staminate catkins. 



Fruit. — Nut small, ovoid, brown, enclosed in a prickly pointed 

 bur. Kernel sweet. 



The Chinquapin is a bush that in its best estate is 

 twelve feet high, although it fruits at three. The leaves 

 are of the chestnut type, sometimes six inches long, 

 and underneath are densely covered with cream-white 

 woolly hairs. 



The burs are small, about an inch in diameter, some- 



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