Page:TheTreesOfGreatBritainAndIreland vol04B.djvu/194

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838
The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland

Fruit, ripening in one season, one to three nuts, ovoid, plano-convex or compressed, enclosed in an involucre, which is tomentose within and is covered externally with branched spines fascicled between deciduous scales, the nuts escaping by the ultimate splitting of the involucre above into two to four valves. Nut crowned by the styles, marked with a scar at the base, its shell lined with tomentum. Seed usually solitary, occasionally two to three in each nut, the aborted ovules, two to eleven in number, remaining at the apex of the seed. Albumen absent. Cotyledons thick, fleshy, undulate, sweet, farinaceous, remaining under ground on germination.

The genus[1] is confined to the warmer parts of the northern temperate zone, and much difference of opinion exists as to the various forms[2] which are met with. Formerly only two species were recognised, viz. C. sativa and C. pumila; but the former, widely spread over North America, Europe, and Asia, exists in certain well-marked geographical forms, which it is convenient to treat as distinct species. A small shrub, occurring in North America, near the coast in the South Atlantic states and in Louisiana and Arkansas, is considered by American botanists to be another distinct species, Castanea alnifolia, Nuttall, and will not be further alluded to. Four species have been introduced into cultivation and are distinguished as follows:—

I. Leaves without stellate tomentum, acute at the base.

1. Castanea dentata, Borkhausen. N. America. See p. 856.
Leaves tapering at the base, long acuminate at the apex, green and glabrous beneath, pendulous. Petiole glabrous.

II. Leaves with stellate tomentum, rounded or cordate at the base.

2. Castanea sativa, Miller. Europe, N. Africa, Asia Minor, Caucasus, Persia. See p. 839.
Leaves green beneath, always showing some trace at least of tomentum, not pendulous, coarsely serrate. Petiole and young shoots scurfy pubescent.
3. Castanea crenata, Siebold et Zuccarini. China, Japan. See p. 854.
Leaves green beneath, tomentum variable in quantity, shallowly and crenately serrate, the teeth often reduced to bristle-like points. Petiole, young shoots, and midrib densely pubescent with short hairs.
4. Castanea pumila, Miller. N. America. See p. 857.
Leaves silvery white and always tomentose beneath. Petiole and young shoots strongly pubescent.


1 In Castanea, the leaves are deciduous, no terminal bud is formed, and the fruits ripen in one season. In Castanopsis the leaves are persistent, a terminal bud is present, and the fruits ripen at the end of the second season.

2 Dode enumerates twelve species, some of which are alluded to in our accounts of C. crenata and C. pumila.

  1. ↑ ’
  2. ↑ ?
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