THE CHESTNUT. 109 



ments there have been made in Europe, by importing 

 grafted trees or cions. There are a few ornamental vari- 

 eties of the European chestnut, but none worthy of any 

 special attention. 



Japan chestnuts. — The first authentic account I 

 have been able to find of the introduction of the Japan 

 chestnut into this country, is of a number of trees re- 

 ceived by S. B. Parsons & Co., Flushing, N. Y., 1876, 

 from the late Thos. Hogg, who, as is well known to all 

 horticulturists, spent several years in Japan collecting 

 many rare kinds of trees and shrubs, which were shipped 

 direct to Parsons & Co. The chestnut trees received in 

 1876 fruited two years later, or in 1878, and soon attracted 

 attention, on account of the large size and excellent 

 quality of the nuts and the precocious habits of the trees. 



The success of this typical variety of the Japanese 

 species, as I have assumed to designate it, proved that 

 there were oriental chestnuts — heretofore untested in 

 this country — that were certainly worthy of an attempt 

 to obtain. This variety, introduced by the Messrs. 

 Parsons & Co., does not appear to have been dissemi- 

 nated under any distinct varietal name, but merely bears 

 the rather meaningless one of Japan chestnut, and 

 for the purpose of jgiving it a position where it may be 

 recognized — by name at least — from other varieties more 

 recently introduced, I shall take the liberty of calling it 

 "Parsons' Japan." 



Soon after it became known that the oriental chest- 

 nuts would succeed in this country, the fruit growers 

 and nurserymen of California began to import and plant 

 these nuts, shipping an occasional lot to their customers 

 in the Eastern States, and from these hundreds of seed- 

 lings have been raised and distributed, under the gen- 

 eral name of Japan chestnut. Among the nuts imported 

 there are some of extraordinary size, even larger than 

 anything of the kind obtained from Europe, as shown 



