OAK FAMILY. 



319 



as it is commonly called. The wood of the Chcslnut-tree is light, easily 

 split, and rather brittle, — yet very durable ; not esteemed for fuel, but 

 highly valued for making fences. The tree is of rapid gTOwth, — being 

 speedily reproduced, by suckers from the stump, when cut otf — and 

 therefore well calculated to keep up a supply of fencing timber. 



2. C. pn'mila, il/^. Leaves obovate-oblong. acute, serrate or denticu- 

 late, whitisli-tomentose beneath ; nut solitary, ovoid, small. 



DwAEF CASTA^'EA. Chinquapin, 



Stem 6-10 or 12 feet hiali. Leaves 2-6 inches longr. mHcronatcl}- serrate or .sometimes 

 denticulate, green and snioothisli above, clothed with a soft dense cinereous tonientum 

 beneath : jtciioles about half an inch in length. JSiaminafe florcers in aments, 1 or 2-4 in- 

 ches long, slender and numerous. Invohicrcf) of the pistillate flowers in spikes, or clus- 

 tered on'short tomentose axillary branches or common peduncles, enlarging, finally glo- 

 bose, an inch or an inch and a half in diameter, pubescent and prickly, opening at summit 

 with 4 lobes or valves, 2^ut {bj abortion ?) constantly solitary, small, ovoid, acute, dark 

 bro^vn. pubescent at summit. 



Sterile soils : S. Pennsylvania to Florida. Fl. June. Fr. Oct. 



01)8. This shrub is rarely seen north of Maryland. The kernels are 

 remarkably sweet and pleasant to the taste, but are scarcely half the 

 size even of our native Chestnut. The seeds of both Chestnuts and 

 Chinqi?apin — and especially of the latter — are very subject to be preyed 

 upon by worms. 



3. FA'GUS, Tournef. Beecit. 



[Latin, — from the Greek, phago^ to eat ; the fruit being esculent.] 



Staminate Fl. in globose long-peduncled pendulous clusters, with de- 

 ciduous scale-like tracts. Calyx campanulate, 5-G-cleft. Stamens 

 8-12. Pistillate Fl. usually in pairs, within an ovoid pedunculate 

 involucre, which is formed of numerous united awl-shaped flexible dracts. 

 Calyx-lobes 5-6, awl shaped. Otary 3-celled ; ovules 2 in each cell; 

 styles 3, filiform ; stigmas lateral. JWts acutely triquetrous, usually two 

 in the leatheiy, softly prickly, 4-valved involucre. Cotyledons thick, 

 fleshy, irregularly plicate. Trees with a thin, smooth, ash-colored barl^^ 

 horizontal branches, long pointed hucls and greenish-yellow ^ctcers. 



i 1. F. ferrugin'ea, Ait. Leaves oblong-ovate, taper-pointed, more or 

 less toothed, ciliate ; the scales of the involucre spreading or recurved. 



Ferrugixous Fagus. Beech Tree. American Beech. 



Fr. Le Hetre. Germ. Die Buche. Span. Haya. 



Stem 40-80 feet or more in height, with a thin even-surfaced whitish bark. Leaven 

 S-5 inches long, penni-nerved, and plicate along the nerves while young, silky-pilose, 

 , finally smoothish on the upper surface ; petioles one-eighth to half an inch long; stipules 

 \ loiig, linear, membranaceous, tawny, caducous. Arnents of staminate flowers very 

 numerous, loosely subglobose, silky pubescent, pale greenish-yellow, on slender silky- 

 piloiie peduncles an inch or an inch and a half long. Involucres of the pistillate flowers 



