For specimens of the nuts, burs and plants of this handsome nut-bearing tree I am indebted to Mr. J. J. Harden, of Stayton, Oregon, who informs me that it grows in the mountains near by to a very large size, and among such well-known kinds of shrubs and trees as _Rhamnus Purshianus_, _Cornus Nuttalli_, _Corylus rostrata_, and various species of conifers which are now more or less common in our Eastern gardens and parks. The twigs and leaves are shown in Fig. 10, and below a nut, and in Fig. 11 a bur, all of natural size. The small conical nut is slightly triangular, with a rather firm, brittle shell, not fibrous as in the acorn and chestnut. The burs are produced singly, but sometimes several on a twig, and when mature, instead of opening by valves, as in the true chestnut, they break up irregularly. The kernels are sweet and excellent flavored, and are sought for by various kinds of birds, as well as by all the squirrel tribe, and for this reason it is very difficult to procure specimens, unless gathered before they are fully ripe. The nuts do not mature the first season, but pass the winter in a partly developed stage, usually ripening the second year about midsummer or, in northern Oregon, in July. It is quite probable that this Castanopsis, when planted in the Atlantic States, will require a little shade or protection, like the American holly and similar broad-leaved evergreens, and while it may not thrive anywhere north of Delaware and Maryland, it is worth trying, as the sole native representative of a genus containing several species of noble evergreen trees. CHAPTER V. THE CHESTNUT. [Illustration: FIG. 12. CHESTNUT FLOWERS.] Castanea, _Tournefort_. The ancient classical name derived either from Castanis, a town in Thessaly, or one in Pontius, as historians disagree in regard to its derivation. The genus belongs to the order _Cupuliferæ_. Male flowers irregularly clustered in long, naked, cylindrical catkins from the axils of the leaves and on the new shoots of the season. Calyx five or six parted; stamens or pollen-bearing organs seven to fifteen; anther two-celled. On old, mature trees, the male catkins are usually crowded near the end of the short new twigs, as shown in Fig. 12, the terminal one productive; but on young thrifty trees, wide apart. Female flowers always on and near the base of a late-developed male catkin, sometimes two or three together,--or even six or eight on the chinquapins,--oval or ovoid, scaly, prickly, two- to four-valved involucre or bur; calyx usually with a four- to six-lobed border crowning the three- to seven-celled ovary; stigmas bristle-shaped, and as many in number as there are cells in the ovary. Shell of the nut leathery, not brittle, ovoid, two or more together in the larger species, in others solitary, or only one in a bur. Kernel very thick, fleshy, and somewhat plaited, sweet and edible.