CHESTNUT, Castanea, a genus of plants of the natural order eupuliferce, closely allied to the beech (fagus), and distinguished from it by long male catkins, longitudinally set with groups of flowers, a 5 to 8-celled ovary, and compressed rounded nuts. The name is derived from the town of Castanum, near Magnesia, in Asia Minor. The COMMON C., SPANISH C., or SWEET C. (C. vulgaris), is said to have been first brought from Asia Minor to Sardinia, and from thence to have gradually extended over the s. of Europe, where it has long been naturalized, and forms extensive woods. It is an ornamental, stately, or, in exposed situations, a very spreading tree, of great size and longevity; the still surviv ing C. of Totworth in England was known as a boundary-mark in the reign of king John. A celebrated C. tree on Mt. Etna measured 204 ft. in circumference of trunk. The C. has oblongo-lanceolate, acuminate, serrated, smooth leaves. The timber is dura ble and hard, and is used in house-building, for making furniture, and for many other purposes. The timber of the C. so much resembles that of the oak, as in old buildings to be distinguished with difficulty. The bark is used for tanning, but is worth only about half the price of oak-bark. Young C. trees are much esteemed for hop and espa lier poles. The C. is therefore frequently grown in England as coppice-wood; but it succeeds well as a timber-tree even in Scotland, although it does not generally ripen its fruit. In Devonshire, however, and in some other parts of England, it is planted to a considerable extent as a fruit-tree. It succeeds throughout all the middle latitudes
of Germany, but dislikes a damp foggy atmosphere. It prefers a dry light soil, and succeeds only where there is a dry subsoil. The nuts are generally two in each husk. They form a principal part of the food of the poor in the s. of Europe, being used either roasted or boiled, and often ground into flour, and made into a kind of bread. They contain 15 per cent of sugar, and by pressure yield a suf.;ary juice, which readily undergoes the vinous fermentation, and from which a crumb-like kind of sugar may be obtained. The best kinds of chestnuts are called by the French marrons. When cultivated as a fruit-tree, the C. is generally grafted, by which means the better varieties are secured. —Other species of C. also bear eatable fruits: those of the AIIRICAN C. (C. Americana), a tree much resembling the commonC., and of the DWARF C., or CHINQUAPIN (C. pumila), a low tree, or more generally a shrub of 7 to 8 ft. high, are used in America. The fruit of the dwarf C. is of the size of a common hazel-nut; the nut is convex on both sides. The plant reaches its southern limit on the banks of the Delaware.—A number of spe cies are natives of the east. The inhabitants of the mountains of Java eat the fruit of the SILVERY C. (C. argentea), and the THNGURRUT (C. tungurrut), boiled or roasted, like the common chestnut. Both of these are large trees, the tungurrut reaching a height of 150 ft.—The horse C. (q.v.) is entirely different from the true chestnut.