454 
Chinquapin. 
(  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\  September,  1895. 
blood  in  changing  the  haemoglobin  of  venous  blood  to  oxyhemo- 
globin of  the  arterial  food. 
Ever  since  Joule  demonstrated  the  mechanical  equivalent  of  heat, 
physiologists  have  been  at  work  to  ascertain  the  number  of  foot- 
pounds of  work  which  the  different  foods  will  yield.  So  that  to  the 
different  kinds  of  food  are  assigned  physiological  functions  ;  to  carbo- 
hydrates and  hydrocarbons  is  ascribed  the  power  of  begetting  force, 
and  from  nitrogenous  substances  is  obtained  the  source  of  supply 
in  replacing  the  waste  of  nitrogenous  tissues,  while  any  excess 
assists  the  starch  and  oil  in  their  province  of  keeping  up  animal 
heat.  "After  the  supply  of  sufficient  albuminoid  matters  in  the 
food  to  provide  for  the  necessary  renewal  of  the  tissues,  the  best 
materials  for  the  production  of  internal  and  external  work  are  non- 
nitrogenous  matters,  such  as  oil,  fat,  sugar,  starch,  gum,  etc.  When 
the  work  is  increased,  not  so  much  extra  meat,  as  vegetable  food, 
or  its  dietetic  equivalent,  fat,  is  demanded."  In  view  of  these  state- 
ments and  facts,  it  seems  to  the  author  that  any  plant  that  is  fairly 
rich  in  starch,  oil  and  nitrogen  is  worthy  of  at  least  a  record.  The 
author  refers  to  the  fruit  of  the  chinquapin  (Castanea  pumila,  Mill.), 
to  which  he  has  devoted  some  attention. 
Castanea  pumila,  Mill.,1  has  been  variously  called  by  systematic 
botanists :  Fagus  pumila,  Linnaeus ;  Fagus  Castanea  pumila,  Mar- 
shall ;  Fagus  pumila  var.  praecox,  Walter ;  Castanea  nana,  Muhlen- 
berg ;  Castanea  alnifolia,  Nuttall ;  Castanea  vesca,  Lesquereaux.  It 
varies  from  a  small  spreading  shrub  to  a  small-sized  tree  (15  meters 
high,  with  a  trunk  0-30  meters  in  diameter).  It  has  a  dark  greenish- 
colored  bark,  marked  transversely  with  whitish  lenticels  and  ellipti- 
cal patches  of  a  lichen.  The  wood  is  light-colored  and  marked  by 
broad  annular  rings.  The  summer  wood  contains  several  rows  of 
large  ducts.  The  young  green  branches  are  covered  with  minute 
one-celled  trichomes.  The  bark  is  rather  tough,  bast  fibres  numer- 
ous and  long,  taste  astringent,  and  is  sometimes  employed  as  a  tonic* 
The  leaves  are  elliptical,  oblong  or  lanceolate,  acute  with  rounded 
base,  mucronate-serrate,  upper  surface  smooth,  lower  surface  marked 
by  clusters  of  long  one-celled  trichomes.  This  tomentose  character 
of  the  under  surface  of  the  leaves  distinguishes  the  chinquapin 
1  Tenth  Census  of  U.  S.,  Vol.  IX,  1880,  entitled,  Forest  Trees  of  North 
America. 
