Habit.—A tree of the first magnitude, rising to a height of 60-80 feet and reaching a diameter of 5-6 feet above the swell of the roots, with a spread sometimes equaling or even exceeding the height; attaining often much greater proportions. The massive trunk separates usually a few feet from the ground into several stout horizontal or ascending branches, the limbs higher up, horizontal or rising at a broad angle, forming a stately, open, roundish, or inversely pyramidal head; branchlets slender; spray coarse and not abundant; foliage bright green, dense, casting a deep shade; flowers profuse, the long, sterile catkins upon their darker background of leaves conspicuous upon the hill slopes at a great distance. A tree that may well dispute precedence with the white or red oak.
Bark.—Bark of trunk in old trees deeply cleft with wide ridges, hard, rough, dark gray; in young trees very smooth, often shining; season's shoots green or purplish-brown, white-dotted.
Winter Buds and Leaves.—Buds small, ovate, brown, acutish. Leaves simple, alternate, 5-10 inches long, 1-3 inches wide, bright clear green above, paler beneath and smooth on both sides; outline oblong-lanceolate, sharply and coarsely serrate; veins straight, terminating in the teeth; apex acuminate; base acute or obtuse; leafstalk short; stipules soon falling.
Inflorescence.—June to July. Appearing from the axils of the season's shoots, after the leaves have grown to their full size; sterile catkins numerous, clustered or single, erect or spreading, 4-10 inches long, slender, flowers pale yellowish-green or cream-colored; calyx pubescent, mostly 6-parted; stamens 15-20; odor offensive when the anthers are discharging their pollen: fertile flowers near the base of the upper sterile catkins or in separate axils, 1-3 in a prickly involucre; calyx 6-toothed; ovary ovate, styles as many as the cells of the ovary, exserted.
Fruit.—Burs round, thick, prickly, 2-4 inches in diameter, opening by 4 valves: nuts 1-5, dark brown, covered with whitish down at apex, flat on one side when there are several in a cluster, ovate when only one, sweet and edible.
Horticultural Value.—Hardy throughout New England; prefers fertile, well-drained, gravelly or rocky soil; rather difficult to transplant; usually obtainable in nurseries. Its vigorous and rapid growth, massive, broad-spreading head and attractive flowers make it a valuable tree for landscape gardening, but in public places the prickly burs and edible fruit are a serious disadvantage. Propagated from the seed.
Plate XXXVI.—Castanea sativa, var. Americana.
| 1. Winter buds. |
| 2. Flowering branch. |
| 3. Sterile flower. |
| 4. Fertile flower. |
| 5. Fruit. |
| 6. Nut. |