BEECH FAMILY 
the surface of the ground. Two sections of the trunk have 
disappeared and a road now runs through what is left. 
The wood is valuable chiefly because of the tannic acid it 
contains, which makes it very durable in contact with the soil. 
During the tertiary period Castanea ranged to Greenland 
and Alaska and traces of it are found in the miocene rocks 
of Oregon and Colorado. 
The Chinquapin, Castanea pumila, is a southern tree often a 
shrub, which bears an abundance of small sweet chestnuts. 
The leaf resembles that of C. denfafa but is smaller and very 
downy on the under surface. This tree is reported as hardy 
in the Arnold Arboretum. 
