SWEET CHESTNUT. 
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.T, number of stamens enclosed in a perianth or calyx of five or six 
green leaves. The female flowers, on the lower part of the catkin, 
are two or three together, in a prickly four-lobed “ cupule,” or 
involucre, and consist each of a calyx closely investing a taper- 
ing ovary, v/hose summit bears from five to eight radiating 
A, fruit. 
stigmas, the number corresponding with the cells into which the 
ovary is divided. Each cell contains two seed-eggs, but as a 
rule only one in each flower develops. As development of the 
ovary and seeds progresses, the cupule also grows, and ulti- 
mately entirely surrounds the cluster with the hedgehog-like coat 
in which the nuts are contained when ripe. Then it splits open 
