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Handbook of Nature-Study 



except that it is much longer and more pointed; it resembles in general 

 shape the leaf of the chestnut oak, except that the edges of the latter have 

 rounded scallops instead of being sharply toothed. The burs appear at the 

 axils of the leaves near the end of the twig. Thoreau has given us a most 

 admirable description of the chestnut fruit: 



"What a perfect chest the chestnut is packed in ! With such wonderful 

 care Nature has secluded and defended these 'nuts as if they were her most 

 precious fruits, while diamonds are left to take care of themselves. First, it 

 bristles all over with sharp, green prickles, some nearly a half inch long, like 

 a hedgehog rolled into a ball ; these rest on a thick, stiff, barklike rind one- 

 sixteenth to one-eighth of an inch thick, which again is most daintily lined 

 with a kind of silvery fur or velvet plush one-sixteenth of an inch thick, even 

 rising into a ridge between the nuts, like the lining of a casket in which the 

 most precious commodities are kept. At last frost comes to unlock this 

 chest ; it alone holds the true key ; and then Nature drops to the rustling 

 leaves a 'done' nut, prepared to begin a chestnut's course again. Within 

 itself again each individual nut is lined with a reddish velvet, as if to pre- 

 serve the seed from jar and injury in falling, and perchance from sudden 

 damp and cold; and within that a thin, white skin envelops the germ. 

 Thus, it has lining within lining and unwearied care, not to count closely, 

 six coverings at least before you reach the contents." 



The red squirrels, as if to show their spite because of the protection of 

 this treasure chest, have the reprehensible habit of cutting off the young 

 burs and thus robbing themselves of a rich later harvest — which serves them 

 right. There are usually two nuts in each bur, set with fiat sides together; 

 but sometimes there are three and then the middle one is squeezed so that 

 it has two flat sides. Occasionally there is only one nut developed in a bur 

 ■ — an only child, so well cared for that it grows to be almost globular. 

 The color we call chestnut is derived from the beautiful red-brown of the 

 polished shell of the nut, polished except where the base joins the bur, and 

 the apex which is gray and downy. 



The chestnut is always a beautiful tree, whether green in summer or 

 glowing golden yellow in autumn ; but it is most beautiful during late June 

 and July, when covered with constellations of pale yellow stars. Each of 

 these stars is a rosette of the pollen-bearing blossoms; each ray consists of a 

 ^ catkin often six or 



eight inches in 

 length, looking like 

 a thread of yellow- 

 ish chenille fringe; 

 clothing this thread 

 in tufts for its whole 

 length are the sta- 

 mens, standing out 

 like minute threads 

 tipped with tiny 

 anther balls. If we 

 observ e the blossom 

 early enough, we can see these stamens curled up as they come 

 forth from the tiny, pale yellow, six-lobed calyx. One calyx, although 

 scarcely one-sixteenth of an inch across, develops from ten to twenty 

 of these stamens; these tiny flowers are arranged in knots along 



Detail of a chestnut blossom. 



a, a. pistillate flowers set in a base of scales; b, pistillate flower 

 enlarged ; c, staminate flower enlarged. 



