WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.720 --> 00:00:05.679
<v Speaker 1>Chapter seven of Ten Common Trees. This is a LibriVox recording.

2
00:00:06.320 --> 00:00:10.240
<v Speaker 1>All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more

3
00:00:10.279 --> 00:00:16.800
<v Speaker 1>information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording

4
00:00:16.839 --> 00:00:23.600
<v Speaker 1>by Larry Wilson, Ten Common Trees by Susan Stokes Chestnut Trees.

5
00:00:26.199 --> 00:00:29.440
<v Speaker 1>Have you ever hunted chestnuts? Then you must go to

6
00:00:29.519 --> 00:00:32.679
<v Speaker 1>the country some day in October. A day in the

7
00:00:32.679 --> 00:00:35.600
<v Speaker 1>woods in October is something almost better than a day

8
00:00:35.600 --> 00:00:39.840
<v Speaker 1>in June. Some morning when the air is crisp and cool,

9
00:00:40.039 --> 00:00:43.200
<v Speaker 1>when the frost is on the ground. Put some apples

10
00:00:43.200 --> 00:00:45.640
<v Speaker 1>and cookies in your pocket, and a long stick with

11
00:00:45.679 --> 00:00:48.679
<v Speaker 1>a crook at the end over your shoulder. As you

12
00:00:48.759 --> 00:00:51.799
<v Speaker 1>run across the hard white ground, you can shout and

13
00:00:51.840 --> 00:00:55.119
<v Speaker 1>sing to your heart's content. You can pass the corn

14
00:00:55.159 --> 00:00:58.520
<v Speaker 1>in shock and tumble from the stack of straw. The

15
00:00:58.600 --> 00:01:01.399
<v Speaker 1>chipmunk on the fence will list to your whistle, and

16
00:01:01.439 --> 00:01:04.480
<v Speaker 1>the red squirrel leaped from tree to tree it your approach.

17
00:01:05.480 --> 00:01:09.319
<v Speaker 1>In the woods, the maples will be scarlet, the ashes purple.

18
00:01:10.120 --> 00:01:13.120
<v Speaker 1>There will be winter green berries with red jackets and

19
00:01:13.439 --> 00:01:18.159
<v Speaker 1>white pulp. But you need not stop for these. Find

20
00:01:18.159 --> 00:01:22.439
<v Speaker 1>the yellow trees with long leaves saw toothed on the edge.

21
00:01:23.040 --> 00:01:26.560
<v Speaker 1>On the grounds, scattered by last night's wind are some

22
00:01:26.719 --> 00:01:31.480
<v Speaker 1>long tailed nuts and some prickly burrs. These burrs are

23
00:01:31.519 --> 00:01:35.439
<v Speaker 1>stiff and covered with sharp branched thorns. They open in

24
00:01:35.519 --> 00:01:39.239
<v Speaker 1>four parts. When tweaked by the frost. The wind helps

25
00:01:39.280 --> 00:01:42.400
<v Speaker 1>pull them from the tree. If they should not have fallen,

26
00:01:42.519 --> 00:01:46.000
<v Speaker 1>take your crook and shake them down. When your pockets

27
00:01:46.000 --> 00:01:48.840
<v Speaker 1>are full of chestnuts, when you have filled the salt

28
00:01:48.920 --> 00:01:52.280
<v Speaker 1>sack you brought from home, when you have eaten apples

29
00:01:52.319 --> 00:01:55.719
<v Speaker 1>with chestnuts and chestnuts with cookies, you can hide your

30
00:01:55.760 --> 00:01:58.519
<v Speaker 1>sack of nuts while you explore a little. You can

31
00:01:58.560 --> 00:02:01.239
<v Speaker 1>climb the tree and peep at the gray squirrel stock.

32
00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:04.400
<v Speaker 1>He is a thrifty little fellow, for he puts by

33
00:02:04.519 --> 00:02:08.000
<v Speaker 1>only the kernels. You would not think of robbing him.

34
00:02:08.680 --> 00:02:12.199
<v Speaker 1>The chipmunk, too has a store, but they are underground.

35
00:02:12.960 --> 00:02:15.199
<v Speaker 1>Once in a while he puts a few together under

36
00:02:15.240 --> 00:02:18.360
<v Speaker 1>some leaves. But you have found them, and then you

37
00:02:18.400 --> 00:02:21.599
<v Speaker 1>can go home home to pumpkin pie and dreams of

38
00:02:21.680 --> 00:02:25.840
<v Speaker 1>chestnuts popping in the ashes. Here is a question for you,

39
00:02:26.560 --> 00:02:31.280
<v Speaker 1>What are chestnuts? Yes, chestnuts are seeds, but they are

40
00:02:31.560 --> 00:02:36.280
<v Speaker 1>also young trees, each packed away in a tough brown coat.

41
00:02:36.879 --> 00:02:39.639
<v Speaker 1>Could you have looked in the burr in July, you

42
00:02:39.680 --> 00:02:43.639
<v Speaker 1>would have found only some small white nuts. In June

43
00:02:43.719 --> 00:02:45.919
<v Speaker 1>they would have been so small that they were really

44
00:02:45.960 --> 00:02:50.680
<v Speaker 1>not nuts at all, but some long necked flowers. Even then,

45
00:02:50.879 --> 00:02:54.039
<v Speaker 1>the three flowers had a prickly cup. Or in volucar.

46
00:02:54.840 --> 00:02:56.960
<v Speaker 1>I have told you about the oaks and the cap

47
00:02:57.039 --> 00:03:00.319
<v Speaker 1>they make for the young acorn. This cup of the

48
00:03:00.360 --> 00:03:04.039
<v Speaker 1>young chestnut is not very unlike the cap of the acorn.

49
00:03:04.639 --> 00:03:07.680
<v Speaker 1>It grows much larger, and it holds three flowers instead

50
00:03:07.680 --> 00:03:10.599
<v Speaker 1>of one. But it shows that the chestnut is a

51
00:03:10.680 --> 00:03:15.120
<v Speaker 1>relative of the oaks. Their staminate flowers show the same thing.

52
00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:19.759
<v Speaker 1>In June. The chestnut tree has long catkins of whitish flowers.

53
00:03:20.560 --> 00:03:24.080
<v Speaker 1>The catkin is made up of numerous clusters of tiny flowers.

54
00:03:24.479 --> 00:03:27.680
<v Speaker 1>The birds are not born among these, but on separate peduncles,

55
00:03:27.719 --> 00:03:30.919
<v Speaker 1>as in the oak. Chestnut trees are known to live,

56
00:03:31.039 --> 00:03:35.520
<v Speaker 1>sometimes to an age of several hundred years. One on

57
00:03:35.680 --> 00:03:39.560
<v Speaker 1>Mount Etna in Italy is one hundred and ninety feet around.

58
00:03:40.280 --> 00:03:43.080
<v Speaker 1>It is called the tree of a hundred horses, for

59
00:03:43.199 --> 00:03:46.879
<v Speaker 1>it once sheltered a queen with her followers it is

60
00:03:46.919 --> 00:03:51.159
<v Speaker 1>a Spanish or Italian chestnut. Other very old ones are

61
00:03:51.159 --> 00:03:54.759
<v Speaker 1>found in England. They do not differ maturely from the

62
00:03:54.759 --> 00:03:59.479
<v Speaker 1>American chestnut, but are frequently planted in America, for the

63
00:03:59.560 --> 00:04:03.479
<v Speaker 1>nuts are larger. The American chestnut is smaller and sweeter.

64
00:04:04.479 --> 00:04:08.080
<v Speaker 1>The chestnut has some relatives a little nearer than the oaks.

65
00:04:08.520 --> 00:04:11.759
<v Speaker 1>They are the chinquipins. The leaves of these are much

66
00:04:11.759 --> 00:04:16.199
<v Speaker 1>smaller than the chestnut leaves. The edge is only slightly toothed,

67
00:04:16.240 --> 00:04:20.319
<v Speaker 1>if at all, and the undersurface is downy. The birrs

68
00:04:20.319 --> 00:04:23.920
<v Speaker 1>are smaller, and there is but one nut instead of three.

69
00:04:24.120 --> 00:04:27.079
<v Speaker 1>The nut is of course not flattened on the sides.

70
00:04:28.160 --> 00:04:31.199
<v Speaker 1>One of the chinquipins is a native of the Pacific

71
00:04:31.279 --> 00:04:34.680
<v Speaker 1>coast and is a tall tree. The other is southern,

72
00:04:34.759 --> 00:04:39.839
<v Speaker 1>and the trees are quite small. End of Chapter seven