J 984
ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.
PART UI.
Varieties. These may be arranged in two classes; those which are consideredbotanical varieties, and those which are cultivated on account of their fruit.
A. Botanical Varieties.
i C.v.2 asplenifdlia Lodd. Cat. , 1836; C. heterophylla Hort .; C. laciniataHort .; C. salicifolia Hort., has the leaves cut into shreds, regularly,or irregularly, and sometimes so as to appear like linear-lanceolateleaves; and hence the epithet of ralicifolia.
“t C. v. 3 'cochledta Lodd. Cat. , 1836, has the leaves cuculate, or hooded,with a diseased stunted appearance.
3. C. v. 4 glabra Lodd. Cat. , 1836; C. v. foliis lucidus Hort.-, has the leavesrather thin, and more shining than those of the species.
If C. v. 5 glauca, C. glauca Hort., has the leaves somewhat glaucous.
1 C. t. 6 variegdta-, C. v. foliis aureis Lodd. Cat. , 1836; has the leaves vari-egated with yellow, with some streaks of white; and the tree, whenof a larger size, makes a splendid appearance in spring, and is admi-rably adapted for planting among evergreen shrubs, along with thebalsam poplar; the colour of which, when the leaves first expand,has all the rich yellow of this variety, with the advantage of beingassociated in the mind with ideas of health; whereas variegation isknown to be generally the effect of disease.
3! C. v. 7 americana ; C. vesca Michx. N. Amer. Syl., iii. p. 9.—This varietyhas broader leaves than the European chestnut.
B. Fruit-bearing Varieties.
In the French catalogues these are very numerous ; and in He Chabrol’sSiatistiques de Savone, &c., it is stated that between 40 and 50 varieties arecultivated in the province of Mondovi, in Piedmont. (See Gard. Mag., vol. i.p. 322.) There are upwards of 20 sorts cultivated in the London Horti cultural Society’s Garden , of which Mr. Thompson considers the four fol-lowing as deserving the preference for ornamental cultivation: — Cha-taignier prime, C. Rallue, the Downton Chestnut, and Prolific Chestnut.
Besides these there are the following English sorts :—Devonshire, Lewis’s,Lisbon , Masters’s, Canterbury, Knight’s Prolific, and the New Prolific.The nurserymen in the south of Devonshire, and in Jersey, generally paymore attention to the sweet chestnut, as a fruit tree, than the nurserymen inthe neighbourhood of London . There is said to be a tree of a very superiorvariety in a garden in St. Peter’s parish, Jersey, from which, it is believed,plants are propagated in Saunders’s Nursery , in that island. (See Gard.Mag., vol. vii. p. tOI.)
The varieties cultivated in France for the table are divided into two kinds,viz., les ckdtaignes and les matrons ; the former being to the latter what thecrab is to the apple. The latter are, of course, much preferred, being larger,more farinaceous, and sweeter. When roasted, they have also a rich creamyflavour, and an aromatic odour, in which the common chestnuts are quitedeficient. The best marrons sold in Paris are the marrons de Lyons; andthe best kinds of the common chestnut are : — La chataigne de Bois, thefruit of which is small, will not keep, and is of little flavour; and the treeforms the principal coppice-wood in the neighbourhood of Paris : la Cna-taigne ordinaire, of which the fruit is rather better, and the tree morevigorous, and a greater bearer : la Chataigne pourtalonne, the fruit of whichis very fine, and produced in great abundance : la Chataigne printamere,the fruit of which has no other merit than that of being produced very earlyin the season : la Chataigne verte du Limousin, which produces very largeexcellent fruit, which will keep a long time, and the tree of which preservesits leaves green much longer than“any of the other varieties : and la Ona-taigne exalade, the fruit of which is the best of all the common chestnutsfor the table; but the tree, which is low, with spreading branches,is suchan abundant bearer, that it soon exhausts itself. (Le BonJard. 1837.)Description, <$c. The chestnut, under favourable circumstances, is a mag-nificent tree, though it never attains a height, or diameter of head, equal to