Handbook of Nature-Study · Lesson CXCIV · Topic 28: Tree study
194. The chestnut
Goal: Your child can describe a chestnut leaf, bur and nut, and knows what happened to the American chestnut.
You'll need
- A chestnut bur and nuts, if you can find them (see the note)
- Garden gloves
- A nature notebook and a pencil (colored pencils if you have them)
What's in the book
The lesson has a leading thought and seven observations on where the trees grow, the leaf, the bur, the nuts inside, the flowers in midsummer and the uses of the wood.
The lesson, step by step
What we know now
When this book was written, the American chestnut was one of the commonest trees in eastern forests. A blight (a fungus disease from Asia) was found in New York in 1904 and within about forty years killed nearly all of the big trees. Sprouts still grow from old roots, and people are working to bring the tree back. Today you are most likely to find Chinese or European chestnuts planted in yards, parks and orchards.
When and where
Fall, when the burs open. Wear garden gloves: the burs are as prickly as a hedgehog. Don't mix them up with horse-chestnuts (next lesson), which are poisonous.
The leading thought
Until the chestnut fruit is ripe, it is well protected by its spiny bur.
The bur
Why is this prickly exterior beneficial to the fruit? Does the bur open easily when green? What causes the chestnut bur to open? Into how many lobes does it open?
Where in the bur are the chestnuts set? How many in one bur?
The nut
How can you tell by the shape of the chestnut whether it grew as a twin or single in a bur.
Take a single chestnut. Describe its shape and color. What is the mark on its large end?
The leaf
Sketch and describe a chestnut leaf, showing the veins, edges and petiole.
Notice the long, straight veins that each end in a sharp tooth.
Nature notebook
Draw an open bur with its nuts inside, and one leaf. Add one sentence about the chestnut blight.
Answers to the book's problems
The spines protect the nuts from squirrels and other animals until they are ripe. The bur opens into four lobes as it dries. Usually two or three nuts sit in a bur; a nut with one flat side grew beside another, and a middle nut of three is flat on both sides.
Worked out for this site from the scan. If a number in your copy differs, trust the book.