into loose plate-like scales. Young branchlets covered with numerous long erect hairs, becoming grey and glabrous in the second year.
Leaves (Plate 202, Fig. 12) smaller than in C. sativa, rarely as much as 5 inches long, not pendulous, oblong-oval, base unequal and rounded or tapering, apex acute, with about 15 pairs of nerves, which end in triangular serrations, tipped by short spine-like points; upper surface dull dark green, minutely pubescent ; lower surface greyish white and densely tomentose. Petioles short, ¼ inch long, pubescent. Stipules about ¼ inch long, pubescent, those of the two lowest leaves broad, ovate, acute, on the middle leaves ovate-lanceolate, towards the top of the branch linear.
Nut ovoid, rounded at the slightly narrowed base, gradually narrowed and pointed at the apex, ¾ to 1 inch long, ⅓ inch broad ; only one fruit in each involucre, which opens generally by two or three valves. The fruit,’ which is ripe in America in September, is delicious in flavour, and is occasionally gathered for market.
Castanea pumila is distinguished from the other species by its smaller leaves, which remain densely whitish tomentose underneath and have fewer nerves. In winter it is distinguished from the common chestnut by the twigs being slender and having a scattered loose pubescence, especially marked towards their apex. The buds are ovoid, not acute at the apex, minute, about 1⁄8 to 3⁄16 inch long, with both the first and second scales appressed-pubescent and ciliate. The leaf-scars and stipule-scars are smaller than in C. sativa.
Castanea pumila,? according to Sargent, occurs on dry, sandy ridges, rich hill- sides, and the borders of swamps, from southern Pennsylvania to northern Florida and the valley of the Neches River, Texas. It is usually shrubby east of the Alleghany Mountains, becoming a tree west of the Mississippi River, and is most abundant and largest in size in southern Arkansas and eastern Texas. The wood* is similar to that of C. crenata, with very thin sapwood, and is used for fences, posts, railway sleepers, etc.
According to Loudon it was introduced in 1699 by the Duchess of Beaufort, but it is extremely rare in cultivation, the only specimens which we have seen being small shrubs at Kew, which, however, seem perfectly hardy.
There are two specimens at Verrières,® near Paris, the smaller of which has a curiously twisted stem and resembles in appearance a dwarf Japanese tree. The other has two stems, each about 28 inches in girth and about 18 feet high, and produces fruit regularly and often in great abundance. (A.H.)
1 Hough, Trees of N. States and Canada, 137 (1907).
2 According to Taylor, in Bailey, Cycl. Amer. Hort. i. 29 5 (1900), this species commonly throws up root-suckers.
3 Castanea neglecta, Dode, in Bull. Soc. Dendr. France, 1908, p. 155, said by Dode to occur in the eastern part of the United States, is apparently only distinguishable from C. pumila by its larger and less pubescent leaves. It is possibly, as this author points out, a hybrid between C. dentata and C. pumila.
4 Hough, loc. cit.
5 Hortus Vilmorianus, 55 (1906).
8 Since this article was corrected for the press, a leaflet has been issued by the U.S. Forest Service, on Chestnut Bark disease, which is caused by a fungus, known as Diaporthe parasitica or Valsonectria parasitica, This has recently destroyed an Immense number of trees in the north-eastern states, spreading with great rapidity. As the disease, if once introduced, may equally destructive in Europe, we think it well to warn arboriculturists against importing American chestnuts at present.
