CHAP. CV.

COUYI.A'cUiE. 6’ASTa'nKA.

1985

the British oak ; and it differs essentially from that tree, in its timber not in-creasing in value as it increases in age. The trunk, in deep free soils, and insituations sheltered rather than exposed, rises erect, and forms a massivecolumn of wood; but, in unsuitable soils, and in elevated exposed situations,and in cold climates, it ramifies at the height of 10 ft. or 12 ft., and the treeassumes the character of a large pollard. In all cases, the diameter of thetrunk is very large, in proportion to the diameter of the head, or the height ofthe tree. The branches form nearly the same angle with the trunk as thoseof the oak; though in thriving trees the angle is somewhat more acute. Theyspread widely, and are round, and smooth when young. The bark is remarkablefor its deep wide clefts, which, Sir J. E. Smith says, “ seem to have furnishedideas for some ornaments in Gothic architecture j” alluding, we suppose, tosome kinds of tracery in the upper parts of windows in the florid Gothic style.The leaves on old trees are from 4 in. to G in. long; but on young and vigo-rous shoots they are often nearly 1 ft. in length, and from 3 in. to din. inbreadth. In France, the leaves of the chataigniers are narrower than thoseof the marroniers, and those of both are narrower than the leaves of wildand cultivated chestnuts in England; which difference may be observed inthe two climates to be the case more or less with all broad-leaved trees.The leaves are elliptic-lanceolate, acute, smooth, with many transverse veins,terminating in sharp serratures ; often, but not always, terminating inmucros. They are of a rich shining green above ; and paler, and some-times rather glaucous, beneath. The barren catkins are numerous, axillary,solitary, yellow, and pendulous; almost as long as the leaves, and decidu-ous. The flowers are produced on the wood of the current year, and areranged along the common stalk, in lateral sessile tufts. The stamens arenumerous and spreading. The fertile flowers are much fewer than the barrenones: they are placed on terminal stalks, which are lengthened out as thefruit advances. The styles are about 6, with long, smooth, upright stigmas.Gaertner detected about 12 scarlet rudiments of stamens among the wool atthe base of the styles. Nuts large, broadly ovate, generally 2; flat on theinner side, and each attached by a broad scar to the bottom of the greatlyenlarged outer calyx, the outside of which is copiously armed with complicatedclusters of sharp prickles. (Smith.) The root descends perpendicularly, likethat of the oak, but not, as it is alleged, to quite so great a depth. The rateof growth of young trees, in the neighbourhood of London, averages from 2 ft.to 3 ft. a year for the first 10 or 12 years. The tree will attain the height offrom 60 ft. to 80 ft. in from 50 to 60 years; before which period its timber isgenerally in the highest degree of perfection ; but the tree will live for severalcenturies afterwards, and produce abundance of fruit; its timber, in the meanwhile, beginning to decay at the heart, or become brittle, and fit only for fuel.In Germany, according to Willdenow, the height is from 20 ft. to 30 ft., andthe duration of the tree from 50 to 100 years. In America, according toMichaux, the chestnut, in favourable situations, commonly attains the heightof 70 ft. or 80 ft., with a circumference of 15 ft. or 16 ft. The oldest chestnutin England is that at Tortworth, supposed to have been planted before theGonquest; and the largest which we have ever heard of is a tree in StudleyPark, of which Jig. 1923. is a portrait, to the scale of 1 in. to 30 ft.; andwhich is 112 ft. high ; the diameter of the trunk, at 1 ft. from the ground, 7 ft.4^ in., and of the head 91 ft. 6 in. By far the handsomest tree of this speciesin the neighbourhood of London, is that at Muswell Hill, figured in our lastVolume, which is 66 ft. high, with a trunk 6 ft. in diameter at a foot from theground, and the diameter of the head nearly 70 ft. This tree has been plantedbetween 70 and 80 years. No tree stoles more freely than the sweet chest-nut, at whatever age it may be cut over.

Geography. The sweet chestnut is found in the east and west of Asia,in the north of Africa, and in North America. In the Old World its coun-tries are more particularly Asia Minor, Armenia, and Caucasus; but it isalso found in the Canaries, and in Teneriffc. It does not grow sponta-neously to the north of Tcreck, in the Kussiau empire; and it docs not ripen

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