The chestnut is found in the temperature regions of central and southern Europe, northern Africa, China, Japan, and eastern North America. The wood is valued in construction, and the much-prized nuts are regarded as a food rather than a confection. European chestnut wood was once high in favor, although examination of structures in which it was supposed to have been used indicates that in some instances oak had been mistaken for it and had been employed in its place. The North American chestnut affords a weak, brittle, but easily worked and very durable wood, such as is admirably adapted for beams, ties, and sills, where lightness and durability rather than much transverse strength are required. Trees in Europe have attained to great size and age. Micheaux mentions one thirty feet in circumference six feet from the ground and said to have been standing for a thousand years. The famous Mt. Etna chestnut[37] is reported to have measured two hundred and four feet in circumference. Large trunks are apt to be hollow, affording brittle, useless wood. The botanical relation between the American and European chestnuts is not distinct. Some consider the former a distinct species, others a variety only. The name "Chinquapin" applies to two distinct botanical species, one, the Castanea pumila, closely related to the common chestnut; the other, Castanopsis chrysophylla, belonging to the same family (Cupuliferæ), but to quite another genus. Both afford woods resembling, but heavier than, chestnut. [Illustration: PLATE 11. CHESTNUT (_Castanea dentata_). (_Courtesy N. C. Geological Survey_.)] The chestnut may be known by its large prickly burr, [p057] containing from one to three thin-shelled, triangular, wedge-shaped nuts. Both chinquapins have prickly burrs containing one, or sometimes two, sweet edible nuts. Three of the four known species of the genus Castanea grow in North America, one the common chestnut (_Castanea vulgaris_); another the Chinquapin (_Castanea pumila_); the third a plant never attaining to the size of a tree. The Chinquapin (_Castanopsis chrysophylla_) is the only North American representative of a genus including twenty-five species. Keeler says that Castanea is from a town of that name in Thessaly, or from another town of that name in Pontus. [p058] FOOTNOTE [Footnote 37: "Castagno di cento cavalli," so called from having sheltered 100 mounted cavaliers, measured by Brydon in 1770. It had the appearance of five distinct trees, but was probably one trunk. (G. B. Emerson, "Trees and Shrubs of Massachusetts," Vol. I, page 192.)] CHESTNUT. _Castanea dentata (Marsh) Borkh._ _Castanea vesca var. americana Michx._ _Castanea vulgaris var. americana A. de C._ Nomenclature. Chestnut (local and common name). Locality. New England, New York to Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Missouri, Michigan. Best on western slope of Alleghany Mountains. Features of Tree.