286 TREES OF MINNESOTA. 
FAGACEAE. OAK FAMILY. 
Genus CASTANEA. 
Trees or shrubs with watery juice and serrate straight veined 
leaves. Flowers monoecious, strong smelling, in axillary cat- 
kins near the ends of the branches, appearing after the leaves. 
The staminate flowers in erect or spreading yellowish cylindrical 
catkins; calyx mostly six-parted; stamens numerous, some- 
times with abortive ovary; filaments slender. The fertile 
flowers usually two to five in an ovoid scaly prickly involucre 
at the base of the androgynous catkins; calyx with a six-lobed 
border crowning the mostly six-celled ovary and usually with 
four to twelve abortive stamens; ovules two in each cavity, 
but only one to each ovary usually maturing; styles corre- 
sponding in number with the cavities in the ovary, slender, 
exserted; stigmas small. Involucre of fertile flowers enlarging 
and becoming globose, mostly four-valved; in fruit a thick, 
very prickly bur inclosing from one to three ovoid nuts. 
Cotyledons very thick, cohering and remaining underground in 
germination. 
Castanea dentata. Chestnut. 
Leaves oblong lanceolate, pointed, acute at base, serrate with 
coarse pointed teeth; when mature smooth and green on both 
sides. Fruit sweet and edible, ripening in autumn. A large 
forest tree with gray bark. 
Distribution—Maine and Ontario to Delaware, Michigan, 
Tennessee and Mississippi. 
Propagation.—Most commonly by seed, which should be sown 
in autumn or stratified over winter and sown in the spring. 
The seed is very difficult to preserve in good condition for 
germination unless carefully stratified out of doors. When 
dried it soon loses its vitality and when stratified in the cellar 
is very liable to mould. ‘The foreign sorts, of which there are 
a number in cultivation, are mostly propagated by grafting on 
the species. 
Properties of wood.—Tight, soft, not strong, coarse grained, 
liable to cheek and warp in drying, easily split, very durable in 
