Castanea is confined to the northern hemisphere, and is widely distributed through eastern North America, southern Europe, northern Africa, southwestern Asia, and central and northern China, Korea, and Japan. Seven species are distinguished. In the countries of the Mediterranean Basin much attention has been given to improving the fruit of the native species Castanea sativa Mill., which is occasionally planted in the middle United States; in Japan the seeds of Castanea crenata S. & Zucc. in many varieties and in China those of Castanea mollissima Bl. are important articles of food. Castanea produces coarse-grained wood very durable in contact with the soil, and rich in tannin. Chestnut-trees suffer in the eastern United States from the attacks of a fungus, Endothia parasitica Anders. which has nearly exterminated them in many parts of the country.
Castanea is the classical name of the Chestnut-tree.
CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES.
Involucre of the fruit containing 2 or 3 flattened nuts.1. [C. dentata] (A, C). Involucre of the fruit containing a single terete nut. Involucre of the fruit densely covered with spines; branchlets hoary tomentose.2. [C. pumila] (A, C). Involucre of the fruit covered with scattered spines; branchlets glabrous or sparingly pilose.3. [C. alnifolia] (C).
1. [Castanea dentata] Borkh. Chestnut.
Leaves oblong-lanceolate, acute and long-pointed at apex, gradually narrowed and cuneate at base, when they unfold puberulous on the upper surface and clothed on the lower with fine cobweb-like tomentum, at maturity thin, glabrous, dark dull yellow-green above, pale yellow-green below, 6′—8′ long, about 2′ wide, with a pale yellow midrib and primary veins; turning bright clear yellow late in the autumn; petioles stout, slightly angled, puberulous, ½′ long, often flushed with red; stipules ovate-lanceolate, acute, yellow-green, puberulous, about ½′ long. Flowers: staminate aments about ½′ long when they first appear, green below the middle and red above, becoming when fully grown 6′—8′ long, with stout green puberulous stems covered from base to apex with crowded flower-clusters; androgynous aments, slender, puberulous, 2½′—5′ long, with 2 or 3 irregularly scattered involucres of pistillate flowers near their base. Fruit: involucre attaining its full size by the middle of August, 2′—2½′ in diameter, sometimes a little longer than broad, somewhat flattened at apex, pubescent and covered on the outer surface with crowded fascicles of long slender glabrous much-branched spines, opening with the first frost and gradually shedding their nuts; nuts usually much compressed, ½′—1′ wide, usually rather broader than long, coated at apex or nearly to the middle with thick pale tomentum, the interior of the shell lined with thick rufous tomentum; seed very sweet.
A tree, occasionally 100° high, with a tall straight columnar trunk 3°—4° in diameter, or often when uncrowded by other trees with a short trunk occasionally 10°—12° in diameter, and usually divided not far above the ground into 3 or 4 stout horizontal limbs forming a broad low round-topped head of slightly pendulous branches frequently 100° across, and branchlets at first light yellow-green sometimes tinged with red, somewhat angled, lustrous, slightly puberulous, soon becoming glabrous and olive-green tinged with yellow or brown tinged with green and ultimately dark brown. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, about ¼′ long, with thin dark chestnut-brown scales scarious on the margins. Bark from 1′—2′ thick, dark brown and divided by shallow irregular often interrupted fissures into broad flat ridges separating on the surface into small thin closely appressed scales. Wood light, soft, not strong, liable to check and warp in drying, easily split, reddish brown, with thin lighter colored sapwood of 3 or 4 layers of annual growth; largely used in the manufacture of cheap furniture and in the interior finish of houses, for railway-ties, fence-posts, and rails. The nuts, which are superior to those of the Old World chestnuts in sweetness were formerly gathered in great quantities in the forest and sold in the markets of the eastern cities.
Distribution. Southern Maine to Woodstock, Grafton County, New Hampshire (rare) and to the valley of the Winooski River, Vermont, southern Ontario, and southern Michigan, southward to Delaware and Ohio, southern Indiana, and southwestern Illinois (Pulaski County) along the Appalachian Mountains up to altitudes of 4000° to northern Georgia, and to western Florida (Crestview, Walton County) southeastern (Henry and Dale Counties) and south central (Dallas County) Alabama, Northern, central and southeastern Mississippi (Pearl River County), and to central Kentucky and Tennessee; very common on the glacial drift of the northern states and, except at the north, mostly confined to the Appalachian hills; attaining its greatest size in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee.
Formerly sometimes planted in the eastern states as an ornamental and timber tree, and for its nuts, of which several varieties have been recognized.