OAK FAMILY. 



319 



as it is commonly called. The wood of the Chestmit-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 growth, — being 

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

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



2. C. pu'mila, Mx. Leaves obovate-oblong, acute, serrate or denticu- 

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



Dwarf Castanea. Chinquapin. 



(Stem 6 - 10 or 12 feet liigh. Leaves 2-6 inches long, mucrouately serrate or sometimes 

 denticulate, green and smoothish above, clothed with a soft dense cinereous tomentum 

 beneath ; petioles about half an inch in length. Staminaie flowers in aments, 1 or 2-4 in- 

 ches long, slender and numerous. Involucres 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. Nut (by abortion ?) constantly solitary, small, ovoid, acute, dark 

 brown, pubescent at summit. 



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



Ohs. 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 

 Chinquapin — and especially of the latter — are very subject to be preyed 

 upon by worms. 



3. FA'GUS, Tournef. Beech. 



[Latin, — from the Greek, p/ia^o, to eat ; the fruit being esculent.] 



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

 ciduous scale-like hrads. Calyx campanulate, 5-6-cIeft. Stamens 

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

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

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

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

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

 fleshy, irregularly plicate. Trees with a thin, smooth, ash-colored b ark, 

 horizontal branches, long pointed buds and greenish-yellow flowers. 



1. F. ferrugin'ea, A.it. Leaves oblong-ovate, taper-pointed, more or 

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



Ferruginous 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. Leaves 

 3-5 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 

 long, linv-ar, membranaceous, tawny, caducous. AmenU of staminate flowers very 

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

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



