Q. Phellos × rubra (?) or coccinea (?) (Q. heterophylla, Michx.); Staten Island and N. J. to Del. and N. C. (Bartram's Oak.)
Q. Phellos × nigra (Q. Rudkini, Britt.); N. J. (Rudkin).
Q. ilicifolia × coccinea (?); Uxbridge, Mass. (Robbins.)
7. CASTÀNEA, Tourn. Chestnut.
Sterile flowers interruptedly clustered in long and naked cylindrical catkins; calyx mostly 6-parted; stamens 8–20; filaments slender; anthers 2-celled. Fertile flowers few, usually 3 together in an ovoid scaly prickly involucre; calyx with a 6-lobed border crowning the 3–7-celled 6–14-ovuled ovary; abortive stamens 5–12; styles linear, exserted, as many as the cells of the ovary; stigmas small. Nuts coriaceous, ovoid, enclosed 2–3 together or solitary in the hard and thick very prickly 4-valved involucre. Cotyledons very thick, somewhat plaited, cohering together, remaining underground in germination.—Leaves strongly straight-veined, undivided. Flowers appearing later than the leaves, cream-color; the catkins axillary near the end of the branches, wholly sterile or the upper ones androgynous with the fertile flowers at the base. (The classical name, from that of a town in Thessaly.)
1. C. satìva, Mill., var. Americàna. (Chestnut.) A large tree, leaves oblong-lanceolate, pointed, serrate with coarse pointed teeth, acute at base, when mature smooth and green both sides; nuts 2 or 3 in each involucre, therefore flattened on one or both sides, very sweet. (C. vesca, var., of the Manual.)—Rocky woods and hillsides, S. Maine to Del., along the mountains to N. Ala., and west to S. Mich., S. Ind., and Tenn.
2. C. pùmila, Mill. (Chinquapin.) A spreading shrub or small tree; leaves oblong, acute, serrate with pointed teeth, whitened-downy beneath; involucres small, often spiked; the ovoid pointed nut scarcely half as large as a common chestnut, very sweet, solitary, not flattened.—Rich hillsides and borders of swamps, S. Penn. to Fla., west to S. Ind. and Tex.
8. FÀGUS, Tourn. Beech.
Sterile flowers in small heads on drooping peduncles, with deciduous scale-like bracts; calyx bell-shaped, 5–7-cleft; stamens 8–16; filaments slender; anthers 2-celled. Fertile flowers usually in pairs at the apex of a short peduncle, invested by numerous awl-shaped bractlets, the inner coherent at base to form the 4-lobed involucre; calyx-lobes 6, awl shaped; ovary 3-celled with 2 ovules in each cell; styles 3, thread-like, stigmatic along the inner side. Nuts sharply 3-sided, usually 2 in each urn-shaped and soft-prickly coriaceous involucre, which divides to below the middle into 4 valves. Cotyledons thick, folded and somewhat united; but rising and expanding in germination.—Trees, with a close and smooth ash-gray bark, a light horizontal spray, and undivided strongly straight-veined leaves, which are open and convex in the tapering bud and plaited on the veins. Flowers appearing with the leaves, the yellowish staminate flowers from the lower, the pistillate from the upper axils of the leaves of the season. (The classical Latin name, from φάγω, to eat, in allusion to the esculent nuts.)
1. F. ferrugínea, Ait. (American Beech.) Tree 75–100° high; leaves oblong-ovate, taper-pointed, distinctly and often coarsely toothed; petioles and midrib soon nearly naked; prickles of the fruit mostly recurved or spreading.—N. Scotia to Fla., west to Wisc., E. Ill., Mo., and Tex.