CASTANOPSIS.
California chestnut. Western chinquapin. Evergreen chestnut.
Castanopsis, Spach. Name derived from _Castanea_, the chestnut.
Order, _Cupuliferae_. A genus of evergreen shrubs and trees,
intermediate between the oaks (_Quercus_) and the chestnuts
(_Castanea_). There are about a dozen species indigenous to Eastern
Asia and the adjacent islands. Blume, in "Flora Javae," Vol. II,
1828-36, describes three species under _Castanea_, which he found in
the mountains and more elevated regions of the Javanese islands.
Very little, however, is known of these oriental evergreen chestnuts
outside of the herbariums of professional botanists, and they are
rarely referred to, even in standard botanical dictionaries, or
dictionaries of gardening, and when mentioned they are usually
placed in the genus _Castanea_. Edouard Spach, a half-century or
more ago, gave a synopsis of the genus, for which he proposed the
name of _Castanopsis_, and although not recognized by botanists in
general for a number of years, it is now accepted by botanical
authorities everywhere. We have but one indigenous species, and this
on the Pacific coast, viz:
[Illustration: FIG. 10. LEAVES AND NUT OF CASTANOPSIS CHRYSOPHYLLA.]
_Castanopsis chrysophylla_, A. de Candolle. _Castanea chrysophylla_,
Douglas. _Castanea sempervirens_, Kellogg.
"Leaves coriaceous, evergreen, lanceolate or oblong, one to four
inches long, acuminate or only acutish (Fig. 10), cuneate at
base and shortly petioled, entire green and glabrous above or
somewhat scurfy, densely scurfy beneath, with none or few yellow
scales; male aments one to three inches long, densely pubescent;
styles three, stout, glabrous, divergent; fruiting involucre
with stout divergent spines (Fig. 11) one-half to one inch long,
subverticillately many branched; nut usually solitary, obversely
triangular, six lines long."--"Geological Survey of California,"
Botany, Vol. II, p. 100.
"This handsome broad-leaved evergreen tree is indigenous to the
elevated regions, from Monterey, California, northward to the
Columbia river in Oregon. It is also common in the Sierra
Nevadas at elevations of six thousand feet, but in its southern
limits rarely below ten thousand feet elevation."--C. S. Sargent
("Woods of the United States").
In the warmer and drier regions of California it is a mere shrub two
to six feet high, and these dwarf forms have, in some instances,
been described as varieties. As, for instance, _Castanea
chrysophylla_, var. _minor_, Bentham; _C. chrysophylla_, var.
_minor_, A. de Candolle; and _C. chrysophylla_, var. _pumila_,
Vasey. But northward, where the climate is more moist, it becomes a
large tree fifty to one hundred and twenty feet high, with a stem
two to three feet in diameter. In its wide variation in habit of
growth, this western chinquapin is similar to our Eastern dwarf
chestnut, which is mainly a low shrub in the more Southern States,
but becomes a fair-sized tree in the Middle States, or near its
northern limits.
[Illustration: FIG. 11. CASTANOPSIS BUR.]
I have introduced the Western chinquapin here among the nut-bearing
trees, not with the idea that it will ever be extensively cultivated
for its edible nuts, but because it is a beautiful broad-leaved
evergreen tree, and of which we have far too few kinds in
cultivation to give warmth and a cheerful aspect to our gardens and
pleasure grounds in winter. It is true that, so far as can be
learned at this time, no extended experiments have ever been made to
introduce or cultivate the Castanopsis in the Atlantic States,
consequently nothing positive is known as to whether it will succeed
here or not. In its northernmost range it thrives in forests among
many kinds of trees and shrubs that are already common in our
gardens, and this leads me to think that specimens or seeds of this
tree procured from the mountains of northern Oregon will withstand
the rigors of our climate.
Mr. S. B. Parsons writes me that he first saw _Castanopsis
chrysophylla_ in Kew Gardens (Eng.) thirty-five years ago, and
procured specimens, which were planted in his gardens at Flushing,
N. Y., but they failed, presumably because not hardy. It may be that
his specimens were raised from nuts procured in the warmer part of
California, and, as with many other Pacific coast plants, proved to
be tender, while later introductions of the same species collected
in colder localities have proved hardy here. In my experience I have
found a great difference in the hardiness of trees and plants
obtained from the higher and lower levels of the mountains from
Colorado westward to the Coast range, for in those regions
acclimation extending over thousands of years has developed and
fixed certain physiological attributes, which enables them to
readily adapt themselves to similar conditions elsewhere, especially
in the line of temperature. It may make no difference to those who
want plants for warm climates, whether they are obtained from
mountain or valley, but it certainly does to those who value
hardiness above all other merits.
In horticultural matters we are supposed to confine ourselves within
certain natural lines in making experiments, but if we fail in one,
or one hundred, it proves little beyond the bare fact that we have
not been successful. I have experimented enough to have become
somewhat wary of deciding that a thing cannot be done, or is
impossible, because of my own and others' failures. Every practical
horticulturist can call to mind many productions which had evaded
the pursuit of experimenters for decades and even centuries.
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.