=Chestnut= (_Castanea vulgaris_), is a fine tree that may reach a large size, and has deeply furrowed bark and large, glossy, serrate but simple leaves in tufts, which turn yellow in autumn. Its flowers are in long pendulous catkins. The dark brown nuts are surmounted by the remains of the perianth, being “inferior” fruits. In a wild state two or three kernels or seeds, separated by a membrane, are contained in each nut; but the Lyons marron, the most valued cultivated race, contains only one. The tree is native from Portugal to the Caspian and in Algeria, and is represented by allied forms in Japan and temperate North America, flourishing in the Alps and Pyrenees at 2,500 to 2,800 feet above sea-level. Its timber resembles oak, but is softer and more brittle.
=HOW WE MAY KNOW THE TREES OF THE FOREST=
Massive strength is the chief characteristic of the oak, and it was the broad-based trunk of an oak that suggested the design for the first great lighthouse. The branches twist about in zig-zag fashion, and the thick bark is deeply furrowed.]
We have only to glance at the birch to realize that its name “the lady of the woods” is well deserved. Its chief characteristic is slender gracefulness, and we cannot mistake the silvery white bark, quite unlike any other tree.]
=Cork Oak or Cork Tree= (_Quercus suber_), is a species of oak, native of southern Europe and northern Africa, the spongy bark of which is the common cork of commerce. It ranges from twenty to forty feet in height, attains a diameter of five feet, and sometimes lives three hundred to five hundred years, producing crops of bark for one hundred and fifty years.
=Cypress= (_Cupressus_), is an evergreen tree of the pine family, with small, imbricated leaves and globular cones, comprising about twelve species, in northern regions of the world. The COMMON CYPRESS of Europe is famous for its durable wood and is believed to be the cedar or gopher wood of the Bible. The MONTEREY CYPRESS, a beautiful tree sometimes one hundred and fifty feet high and eight or ten feet in diameter, grows near the sea in California and three others occur on the Pacific Coast. The so-called CYPRESS or WHITE CEDAR of the Eastern States, and the BALD CYPRESS of southern swamps, valued for timber, are distant varieties of cypress.