Castanea 841 



Var. cochleata. Leaves small, irregularly cut, hollow or with swellings in the 

 middle, 



Var. prolifera. Some of the leaves, usually the uppermost ones, remaining 

 whitish tomentose beneath, 



Var. glabra. Leaves thin and shining. 



Var. rotundifolia. Leaves small, not exceeding 2 J inches in length, oval in shape. 



Var. pendulifolia} Branches pendulous. 



Many varieties of the fruit, which are propagated by grafting, are cultivated in 

 France and Italy. In France, the name marron is given to the best varieties, in 

 which the fruit is large, globular, broader than long, and usually single in the 

 involucre. According to de Candolle,^ the Romans in Pliny's time already dis- 

 tinguished eight varieties, but it is impossible to discover from the text of this 

 author whether they possessed the variety with a single kernel. Olivier de Serres* 

 in the sixteenth century praises the chestnuts, Sardonne and Tuscane, which pro- 

 duced the single-kernelled fruit called the marron de Lyons. He considered that these 

 varieties came from Italy ; and Targioni * states that the name marrone or marone 

 was employed in that country in the Middle Ages (11 70). In England, the cultiva- 

 tion * of special varieties of the chestnut for its fruit is so little in vogue that it is not 

 even mentioned in a late and comprehensive book on fruit culture. The Fruit Garden,^ 

 by Bunyard and Thomas.^ 



Distribution 



The chestnut occurs wild throughout the whole of southern Europe, in Algeria, 

 Tunis,* Asia Minor, the Caucasus, and northern Persia. It has not been found in 

 the Himalayas where there are several species of Castanopsis occasionally known 

 in India* as chestnuts, and is replaced in China and Japan by a closely allied species.^" 



Its northern limit in Europe is difficult to trace with accuracy, as the original 

 area of distribution has been much extended by cultivation since the time of the 

 Romans ; and it has become naturalised in many parts. According to Willkomm 

 the northern limit runs along the edge of the Jura and is continued through Switzer- 

 land to the south Tyrol, Carinthia, Styria, and Hungary, where it reaches Pressburg 



> Lavallee, Arb. Segrez. 113. t. 33 (1885). 2 Origin of Cultivated Plants, 353 (18S6). 



' ThiAtre de V Agric. p. 114. * Cenni Storici, p. 180. 



* Hogg, in Fruit Manual, 224 (1875), says that the chestnuts produced even in the southern counties are so inferior to 

 those imported from Spain and the south of France, that no one would think of planting the chestnut for its fruit alone. He 

 mentions two varieties, Devonshire Prolific and Dovinton, which succeed in hot seasons. Lord Ducie, however, informed Sir 

 W. Thiselton-Dyer that he had once sent a sack of chestnuts to Covent Garden market, which realised ;^3 ; and was asked 

 to send more, as they were the first on the market. * In Country Life Library, 1904. 



' W. A. Taylor, in Bailey, Cycl. Amer. Hort. i. 296 (1900), enumerates and describes seventeen varieties of the 

 European chestnut which are in cultivation in the United States. 



8 Battandiei et Trabut, Flore de VAlgirie, 819 (1888) ; wild in forests of Edough near Bone in Algeria, and in Tunisia 

 near Ai'n-Drahm. Though cultivated near Tangiers and Tetuan it has not yet been found wild in Morocco. Cf. Ball, in 

 Joum. Linn. Soc. (Bot.) xvi. 666 (1878). 



" The chestnut has been planted at Bashahr, in the Punjab, where trees fifteen years old are 30 feet high and 4 feet in 

 girth, j^ea; .5«//. 1897, p. 113. 



'" The chestnut has been erroneously supposed, mainly on philological grounds, not to be a native of Europe, but to have 

 been introduced at an early period from Asia Minor. The best discussion on this subject is by De CandoUe, in Geog. Bot. ii. 

 688 (1855). A learned paper on the classical names of the oak and chestnut by H. L. Long appeared in Loudon, Gard. Mag. 

 1839, pp. 9-20. Dr. Bettelini's excellent account of this tree in Flora Legnosa del Sottoceneri, pp. 83-112 (1904), should also 

 be consulted. He describes sixteen varieties, cultivated for their fruit in Switzerland and Italy. 



IV S 



