CASTANOPSIS. 



57 



thousand feet, but in its southern limits rarely below 

 ten thousand feet elevation. " — 0. S. Sargent ("Woods of 

 the United States"). 



In the warmer and drier regions of California it is 

 a mere shrub two to six feet high, and these dwarf forms 

 have, in some instances, been described as varieties. 

 As, for instance, Castanea chrysophylla, var. minor, 

 Bentham ; C. chrysophylla, var. minor, A. de Candolle ; 

 and C. chrysophylla, var. pumila, Vasey. But north- 

 ward, where the cli- ; , 

 mate is more moist, it \\\\^'WWf' 

 becomes a large tree 

 fifty to one hundred 

 and twenty feet high, 

 with a stem two to 

 three feet in diameter. 

 In its wide variation 

 in habit of growth, 

 this western chinqua- 

 pin is similar to our 

 Eastern dwarf chest- 

 nut, which is mainly 

 a low shrub in the 

 more Southern States, 

 but becomes a fair-sized tree in the Middle States, or 

 near its northern limits. 



I have introduced the Western chinquapin here 

 among tiie nut-bearing trees, not with the idea that 

 it will ever be extensively cultivated < for its edible nuts, 

 but because it is a beautiful broad-leaved evergreen tree, 

 and of which we have far too few kinds in cultivation to 

 give warmth and a cheerful aspect to our gardens and 

 pleasure grounds in winter. It is true that, so far as 

 can be learned at this time, no extended experiments 

 have ever been made to introduce or cultivate the Casta- 

 nopsis in the Atlantic States, consequently nothing pos- 



FIG. 11. CASTANOPSIS BUK. 



