31S 



WEEDS AXD ITSZEUL FLAXTS. 



long, deeply lobed (r.stiallv 3 lobes on each side), — the lobes rather Barro'»T, diverging 

 Ihe'baso of 'the leaves obtuse or often somewhat cuneate. both surfaces smooth, except ? 

 tuft of pubescence in the axils of the nerves beneath ; petioles 1-2 inches long. Ac.07~n 

 email (mostly numerous), seated in a smoothish shallow nearly flat-bottomed subsessile 

 cup, which is often abruptly tapering from the centre of the base. 



"Wet low grounds, along rivulets^ &c. : I\ew England to Pennsylvania, and west to 

 Illinois. 



OJ)S, The wood of this Oak is Tery firm, — and is much employed by 

 wheelwrights, &c. It is quite common in Pennsylvania. — but does not 

 appear to extend to the South. It would seem as if the Q,. falca ta, and 

 this species, were distinctly located in the two great divisions of the U. 

 States, Four or five additional species, belonging to this group, are 

 found in the U. States ; but they are not very important, — and some of 

 theoi are quite small and scrubby. 



2. CASTA'NEA, Tournef. Chestnut. 



pSTamed from a city of Thessaly {Casianea)\ famed for Chestnuts.] 

 Stamixate Fl. interruptedly clustered in long naked cylindrical spike- 

 form ar/ients. Calyx deeply 5-6-parted. Stamens 8-15; antJters 2- 

 celled. Pistillate Fl. usually in threes, within ovoid squarrose soli- 

 tary or clustered involucres. Calyx adherent to the ovary, — the limb 

 5-6 lobed. Stamens 5-12, abortive, minute. Ovary 3-6 celled; 

 ovules solitary, pendulous ; style bristle-like ; stigmas as many as the cells. 

 Fruit a coriaceous prickly involucre, containing 1-3 nuts, and opening 

 by 4 valves. JS'uts ovoid when single, plano-convex or compressed when 

 two or three, — 1-seeded by abortion. Cotyledons thick, somewhat plicate 

 and cohering together, sweetish and farinaceous. Floicers appearing 

 after the leaves. 



1. C. ves'ca, L. Leaves oblong-lanceolate, acuminate-serrate, with coarse 

 pointed teeth, smooth on both sides ; nuts usually 2 - 3 in each involucre. 

 Eatable Castajstea. Chestnut, Chestnut-tree. 

 Fr. Lc Chataignier. Germ.. Der Kastanienbaum. Span. Castaiio. 



Stem 60-SO or 90 feet high, and ^-4 or 5 feet in diameter. Leaves 6-9 inches long; 

 petioles about half an inch long. Staminate jloicers small, whitish or ochroleucons. in 

 slender, pubescent interrupted" spikes or cnnents, 4-S inches in length. — the iiorets 

 crowded in dense bracteate clusters ; stamens long. Pistillate floicers mostly 3 together, 

 in a scaly, squarrose ovoid involucre. Involuo^e usually solitary — sometimes S-4 in 

 a cluster— subsessile, enlarging, finally globose, about 2 inches" in diameter, thickly 

 covered with acute compotind'or coalesced prickles, opening at maturity by 4 valves or 

 lobes, densely villous within. Xuts 8 (by abortion often 2 or 1), roundish-ovate, acumi- 

 nate, reddish-brown, smooth below, the r/pper half covered with a greyish-tawny pubes- 

 cence ; the middle nut flatted on both sides, the lateral ones convex'or gibbous exter- 

 nally, and when the lateral ones are both abortive, the central one beoomes roundibli- 

 ovoid. 



Upland forests : throughont the United States. Fl. June. Fr. October. 



Ols. The American Chestnut-tree is scarcely more than a variety oi 

 the European, — the chief difference being in the size of the fi'uit. The 

 nuts of our native Chestnut-tree are smaller, and the kernels much 

 sweeter, than those of the European variety — or Spanish Chestnut,'' 



