276 



NOTES FROM A GARDEN HERBARIUM. 



•orange in importance and extent of cultivation, and the 

 truth of the statement can hardly be doubted. The 

 nuts sell readily at fifteen cents per pound, and several 

 growers receive one dollar per pound for their best 

 varieties. Ten dollars per bushel is no uncommon price, 

 for in many markets pecans are as highly valued as 

 English walnuts. A tree twenty years old should yield 

 fifteen to twenty dollars worth of nuts on an average, 



and should increase somewhat. Much more cannot be 

 expected, as the tree sometimes has "off years," but a 

 regular income may be obtained by making larger plan- 

 tations. No crop is more easily grown or harvested, 

 and as the region in which this tree can be grown is 

 practically unlimited, we may soon expect to see pecan 

 culture one of the prominent industries of the growing 



south. E. G. LODEMAN. 



NOTES FROM A GARDEN HERBARIUM— IV. 



THE CULTIV.\TED CHESTNUTS. 



HE CULTIVATED chestnuts 

 of this country, although 

 few in number, are per- 

 plexing to the botanist. It 

 is now generally agreed 

 that the wild American 

 chestnut is only a geo- 

 'S^^ graphical variety of the 

 European species ; yet it 

 is important for many 

 reasons that horticultur- 

 ists should be able to distinguish between the two. 

 The most important difference, perhaps, between 

 the wild plants lies in the quality and size of the 

 nuts, the American being smaller and much sweeter ; 

 but in cultivation the nuts become modified and 

 they cannot be relied upon for characters of separa- 

 tion. De Candolle (Prodromus, xvi. 2, 114) says 

 that the base of the leaf in the American chestnut 

 is more acute than in the European, and this state- 

 ment has been copied by most subsequent writers. 

 It is true that the base of the leaf is acute or taper- 

 ing in our plant, but the leaf of the Old World plant 

 is not always obtuse, so that as a comparative 

 character it is insufficient for determination. I 

 have given much study to the botanical differences 

 of the chestnuts during the past year, and at first it 

 seemed almost hopeless to attempt to find differ- 

 ences between the American and European trees 

 which the fruit-grower could recognize ; and I can- 

 not now hope to have found characters which are 

 always decisive; unless ample specimens are secured 

 to eliminate variations in individual leaves. But 

 the results are as satisfactory, perhaps, as we 

 could expect. 



A marked difference between the American and Eu- 

 ropean chestnuts appears to lie in the texture of the 

 leaves. The European tree has thick and heavy leaves, 

 while those of the native are thin. I was first led to ob- 

 serve this difference at the suggestion of Samuel C. Moon, 

 of Morrisville, Penn., who has made a particular study 

 of the chestnuts. Mr. Moon writes me that in most 



cases ' 'the leaves of the European varieties have more sub- 

 stance and are more of a leathery texture than the Amer- 

 ican, which are often papery in character. " There are 

 also decided differences in the average forms and denta- 

 tion of the leaves of the two. Fig. i shows this differ- 

 ence exactly. The left specimen is a leaf of the Barnie, 

 a European variety ; while the one on the right is the 

 Paragon, which I am satisfied is American, notwith- 

 standing recent statements that it is a seedling of a Eu- 

 ropean variety. The leaf of the foreign chestnuts tapers 

 somewhat abruptly to the apex and the teeth are short 

 and small with a tendency of the points to turn inwards ; 

 the leaf of the American is longer and very gradually 

 pointed, with large and spreading teeth and deep rounded 

 sinuses. The figures represent average specimens. It 

 would be easy to select more pronounced types. The 

 base of the leaf in the European plant is often distinctly 



Fig. 17. Bark-Borer and its tunnels. 



heart-shaped, while it is always tapering in the American, 

 so far as I have observed. 



These leaf characters are sufficient, I think, to dis- 



