Chinquapin

CHINQUAPIN (ching'ket-pin). Dear to the heart of every boy are the sweet kerneled chinquapin nuts which fall from their prickly burrs when autumn sets in. Scarcely more than shrubs, these dwarf chestnut trees (Castanea pumila) flourish in the warmer sections of the Appalachian Mountains. The golden-brown fruits are to be found on sale in the southern markets in season, and barefooted boys haunt the railway stations, gleaning coin from the passengers in exchange for the nuts, strung in lorq chains. Unlike its larger cousins, the chinquapir bears burrs which contain but a single nut, rarely two. The name is of Indian origin.

Another nut called chinquapin is the sweet kerneled acorn of the shin oak or chinquapin oak, Quercw chinquapins, often no more than one foot in height, which forms miniature thickets on the barren uplands.

of Kansas and Missouri.