Castanea
(from Castanea, a town in Thessaly, or from another town of the same name in Pontus). Chestnut. ORD. Corylaceae. Large, spreading, deciduous trees. Male flowers clustered on long naked cylindrical catkins, with a five to six partite perianth. Female flowers, two or three together in a prickly four-lobed involucre, which eventually completely encloses the glossy brown fruits or nuts. Leaves simple, alternate, stipulate, deciduous, serrated. The nuts are eaten as gathered, or baked and flavoured with salt. In some parts of France, where corn is scare, Chestnuts are ground up as a substitute for flour. It is, however, very hard when baked. A sandy loan suits the Sweet or Spanish chestnut best. A warm, rather sheltered site is an important point when the ripening of the fruits is a consideration; but the trees will grow freely, and form good specimens, in almost any position. The young trees must have all side shoots removed, until they form stems of sufficient height.
PROPAGATION is effected by seed, grafting, or budding, but chiefly by seed.
Seed. The ripest and best-formed may be sown as soon as ripe; or they may be kept till February or March. By adopting the latter course, the risk of destruction by rodents, &c., is greatly lessened. Some stratify the nuts in damp sand, during winter, and plant them out in spring, at the same time removing the points of the radicles or growing roots, with a view to making the trees more dwarf and sooner fertile. The simplest way, however, is to sow wither in November or February, in drills, 1ft. apart, and 3in. deep, placing the nuts 3in. or 4in. apart in the rows. If the plants make rapid growth, they can be replanted the following November, in drills 3ft. apart, and the plants 2ft. asunder. On food soil, and with proper attention, they will be fit for finally placing out in from three to four years form the time of sowing. Grafting is resorted to for increasing any good variety for fruiting. All may be perpetuated in this way; but a few are so distinct that a large percentage of similarly good sorts may be expected form their seeds.
budding may be performed in July, or any time after the buds are sufficiently plump. good large fruiting varieties are rather scarce, and anyone contemplating growing these, should make sure of getting the best, either from a first-class English nursery, or from the Continent. PLANTING. The Chestnut looks well planted singly or in groups. In the latter case, from 20ft. to 30ft. apart will be suitable distances, and form three to fifteen trees in a group will give a noble effect. For coppices or underwood, the trees should be planted about 5ft. apart, the coppice being cut every twelve or fifteen years.
C. pumila (dwarf). fl. green, yellow. July. Nut solitary, not flattened. l. oblong, acute, serrate with pointed teeth, whitened, downy underneath. h. 12ft. North America. 1699.
C. sativa (cultivated).* Sweet, or Spanish, Chestnut. fl. yellowish. July. fr. greenish, enclosing a brown nut, ripe in October. l. oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, mucronately serrated, glabrous on each side. h. 50ft. to 70ft. Asia Minor. SYN. C. vesca. The varieties are numerous; but tow only need be mentioned ad worth growing in addition to the type, and these are C. s. foliis aureo-marginatis, with golden-edged foliage; and C. s. heterophylla dissecta, in which the leaves are divided into thread-like segments.
C . vesca (edible). Synonymous with C. sativa.