THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 67 
lencies, the true chestnut is the favorite. The trees are beautiful 
at all seasons and now are clothed in gold or amber. Children are 
apt to force the season and gather the nuts too young. The time 
to seek them in October is after a cool breezy night. Then the 
spiny burrs open on the trees and the brown beauties come 
showering down. \\'hat a pleasant patter they make I A\ hat 
a delight and fascination there is in poking with a stick among 
the leaves and finding their retreats ! It almost seems as if they 
were endowed with consciousness and wittingly secluded them- 
selves. 
Speaking of the burr, what a consum.mate work cf art it is! 
A\'ithcut it is defended by an intricacy of sharp, irritating spines 
A^ofli me tangcre is its watch-word. Within, each of the valves 
or divisions of the pod is velvet lined as for the reception cf seme 
precious gem. The polished surface of the contained nuts must 
not be marred. There they nestle, three of them usually, close- 
fitting, with the middle one compressed. Each is tipped with a 
long spur-like style, for these are more than seeds ; they are fruits. 
As an instance of contented fatness— one that would please the 
elder Squeers— commend us to the chestnut worm. There he 
dwells in Nirvana merely eating and sleeping, too obese even to 
crawl. He is really a most amusing little fellow, a "greasy citi- 
zen." indolent and happy; we feel ashamed to disturb his rest. 
To us, the black walnut would come next in order of merit to 
the chestnut, but it is hardly common enougii about here to be 
much reckoned with. Its cousin the butternut, really a true wal- 
nut, is much more frequent in Xew England and extends far 
north. 
The shell-bark hickor}' is one of the best nuts, and fortunately 
very abundant. It's flavor is very rich and delicate: it's parent tree 
among the finest in our forests. Tough, lithe and supple in youth 
it grows to grand proportions and sym.metry. We are apt to find 
the trees in groves on rocky hillsides. These trees and their near 
relatives are not, as they are always called in Xew England, wal- 
nuts, but hickories. The noble pecan of the South, best of all 
American nuts is a member of the same genus Hickoria or Carya 
So are the several kinds of pignuts. 
The beech nuts, very common with us, the fruit of one of our 
most superb and shapely trees, is not sought for much as food. 
