318 



WEEDS Amy USEFTIL PLA^^S. 



long, deeply lobed (usually 3 lobes on each side), — the lobes rather narrow, diverging, 

 the base of the leaves obtuse or often somewhat cuneate, both surfaces smooth, except a 

 tuft of pubescence in the axils of the nerves beneath ; pdifiles 1-2 inches long. Af:orn 

 small (mostly numerous) , seated in a smoothish shallow nearlv flat-bottomed subsessile 

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



Wet low grounds, along ri%-ulet.s, tc: New England to Pennsvlvania, and west to 

 Illinois. 



Ohs. The wood of this Oak is veiT &m, — 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 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 

 them are quite small and scrubby. 



2. CASTA'KEA, Tournef. Chestnut. 



[Named from a city of Thessaly (Caslanea) ; famed for Chestnuts.] 



Staminate Fl. interruptedly clustered in long naked cylindrical spike- 

 form aments. Calyx deeply 5 - 6-parted. Stamens 8-15; anthers 2- 

 ceUed. Pistillate Fl. usually in thi-ees. 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. Nuts 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. Flowers appearing 

 after the leaves. 



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

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

 Eatable Castanea. Chestnut. Chestnut-tree. 

 Fr. Le Chataignier. Germ. Der Kastanienbaum. Span. Castano. 



Stem 60-80 or 90 feet high, and 2-4 or 5 feet in diameter. Leaves 6-9 inches long ; 

 pdioles about half an inch long. Staminate Jlovxrs small, whitish or ochroleucons, in 

 slender, pubescent interrupted spikes or aments, 4-8 inches in length. — the florets 

 crowded in dense bract eate clusters ; stamens long. Pisiillatejiowers mostly 3 together, 

 in a scaly, squarrose ovoid involucre. Involvxre usually sohtary — sometimes 3-4 in 

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

 ■covered with acute compound or coalesced prickles, opening at maturity by 4 valves or 

 lobes, densely villous within. Niits 3 (by abortion often 2 or 1), roundish-ovate, acumi- 

 nate, reddish-brown, smooth below, the upper half covered with a greyish-tawny pubes- 

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

 nally, and when the lateral ones are both abortive, the central one becomes roundish- 

 ovoid. 



Upland forests : throughout the United States. H. June. Fr. October. 



Obs. The American Chestnut-tree is scarcely more than a variety of 

 the European, — the chief difference being in the size of the fruit. The 

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

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



