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A tanning material,’ extracted from chestnut bark, is prepared near St. Malo in France, and is largely exported to Belgium and to Glasgow. It is said to be used to modify the colour produced by hemlock extract obtained from Tsuga canadensis. (H.J.E.)
CASTANEA CRENATA, Japanese Chestnut
- Castanea crenata, Siebold et Zuccarini, Abh. Akad. Muench, IV. iii. 224 (1846); Schneider, Laubholzkunde, i. 804 (1906).
- Castanea japonica, Blume, Mus. Bot. Lugd. Bat. i. 284 (1850).
- Castanea vesca, Gaertner, var. pubinervis, Hasskarl, Cat. Hort. Bog. Alt. 73 (1844).
- Castanea vulgaris, Lamarck, var. japonica, A.DC. Prod. xvi. 2, p. 115 (1864); Shirasawa, Icon Forest. Japon, text 63, t. xxxiv. ff. 14–25 (1900).
- Castanea vulgaris, Lamarck, var. yunnanensis, Franchet, Journ, de Bot. 1899, p. 196.
- Castanea sativa, Miller, var. acuminatissima, von Seeman, in Diels, Flora von Central China, 287 (1901).
- Castanea pubinervis, Schneider, Laubholzkunde, i. 158 (1904).
A tree, usually smaller in size than the European species, but occasionally attaining large dimensions. It is probably only a geographical form of that species, but can readily be distinguished and may be kept separate; as it probably differs in growth and in cultural requirements.
The leaves are borne on shorter petioles, but resemble those of the common chestnut in shape, being rounded or cordate at the base and having about twenty pairs of nerves; but they are smaller in size and have much shallower serrations, with very long and fine spine-like points. The main difference lies in the pubescence,* which is short and dense on the young branchlets, on the petioles, and on the midrib of both sides of the leaf. In the common chestnut this very distinct pubescence is either absent or replaced by a scurf, very different in appearance. The catkins of the eastern tree are more slender and the fruits of wild trees smaller than in the common species. Castanea crenata also comes into flower, when still very young, and often bears fruit when quite a small shrub.
In China Castanea crenata‘ occurs wild, mainly in the mountains of the central provinces, as a tree about 4o feet in height ; and is nowhere abundant, and so far as I have seen never forms woods of any extent.
1 A similar extract, prepared from the wood of the chestnut, is largely manufactured in Corsica. Mr. Southwell, Vice-
Consul at Bastia, gave me some interesting particulars about this industry, when I visited Corsica in December 1906. There
are four factories near Bastia, which produce about 25,000 tons of extract annually. The bark is not employed in Corsica, as
the dark colour of the extract produced from it is objectionable. ‘Four tons of wood yield about one ton of extract, The
wood is cut into chips, which are soaked under pressure in hot water, which extracts all the tannin and some of the colouring
matter. The resulting liquor is concentrated zz vacuo. Practically the whole of this extract is used in England and Germany
for sole-leather. Mr. Southwell informed me that certain trees in ‘Corsica had brown-coloured wood, which produced an
unsaleable extract. He had found by experiment that this brown colour in the wood is due to the presence of iron in the
soil.—(A. H.)
2 Kew, Bulletin, 1893, p. 229.
3 The pubescence over the lower surface of the leaf is similar to that of the European tree, and is very variable in quantity and persistence.
4 The large chestnut tree occurring wild in China is considered by Dode to be distinct from the Japanese tree, and has been named by him C. Duclouxii and C. Fargesii, in Bull. Soc. Dendr. France, 1908, pp. 150, 158.