CHESTNUT. 
Natural Order , Ament ace,e, (Juss.) Linnsean Classifica- 
tion, Monoecia, Polyandria. 
CASTANEA.f (Tournefort.) 
Polygamus. The male ament elongated, composed of numer- 
ous interrupted clusters of flowers, with a 5 or 6 parted peri- 
anth. Stamens 10 to 20. Female flowers about 3 in an ovoid 
muricate valvular involucrum. Perianth urceolate, 5 or 6- 
cleft, having rudiments of abortive stamens. The ovary- 
incorporated with the perianth, the stigma pencillate, exserted, 
its divisions rigid and pungent. Nuts 1 to 3, included in the 
enlarging echinate, 4-cleft involucrum. 
These are trees or shrubs of temperate Europe and North 
America, with alternate, stipulate, mucronately serrated leaves, 
and very long axillary aments. Nuts farinaceous, edible. 
DWARF CHESTNUT. 
CASTANEA alnifolia, depressa , foliis obovatis subacutis , 
mucronato-serratis subciliatis junioribus subtus pubescenti- 
bus , amentis filif or mibus solitariis tomentosis . 
/3. PuBEscENs,/oZm brevioribus , adultis subtus pubescens. 
Castanea alnifolia , Nutt. Gen. Am., vol. 2. p. 217. 
Castanea nana , Elliott, Sk., vol. 2. p. 615. (not of Muhl.) 
Fagus pumila , var , prxcox, Walter, Carolin., p. 233. 
A species remarkable for its dwarf growth, and in- 
t So named from Castanea , a town of Thessaly, near the 
river Peneus, where large Chestnut trees are still found. 
