CHAl>. CV.

CORYLA'cEiE. CASTA’nEA.

1999

the trunk averaged from 9 in. to 1 ft. in diameter, and then to use it as gate-posts, or posts for supporting shed roofs. As coppice-wood, the commonperiod at which it is felled is about every 16 years; though in some places, asabout Maidstone, in Kent , the poles are cut every 12 years, and even every10 years. For hoops, they may be cut every 4 or 5 years.

Accidents, Diseases, &rc. The timber of the chestnut being brittle, and thebranches spreading obliquely from the trunk, it is much more liable to beinjured by storms than either the beech or the oak. The wood is also subjectto become shaky, and cup-shaky in the interior (see p. 1992.); and to thatpeculiar disease, already mentioned (p. 1991.), which the French call dial-ling. The decay of the heart wood is also technically considered a diseasenamed caries; and Chaptal informs us that, when he was travelling in dif-ferent parts of France , and particularly in Cevennes, in the department ofAllier , he observed a great number of chestnut trees with their trunks quitehollow, and charred over the whole of their interior surface. The inhabitantsof the country explained to him that this operation was necessary to checkthe progress of the caries, or decay, which would otherwise speedily consumethe entire tree. Hence, when they observe the disease beginning to spread,they cut the whole of the rotten wood out of the trunk, and then collectheath and other combustible plants, which, when thoroughly dry, they burnin the hollow of the tree, till the whole surface of the interior is completelycharred. This is found effectually to stop the progress of the disease ; andthe operation is performed so dexterously, that it is very rare to find a treedestroyed by it. ( Bulletin des Sciences, an 7, as quoted in N. Du Ham,, tom. iii.p. 79.) The leaves are liable to be attacked by few or no insects; and it issaid that the wood never becomes worm-eaten. The nuts, however, in someseasons, are attacked by a kind of weevil, the Pyrale Pflugione of Fab. (seeMem. deEeaum., tom.ii. pi. 11. No. 19.), which is in its imago state when thechestnut trees are in flower. To prevent it from depositing its eggs in theincipient fruit, the inhabitants of Cevennes, where it is most common, makefires to attract and burn the insect. When the germ of the fruit has beenpierced, the nut never attains its full size, but drops off before it is half ripe.Sometimes these weevils are found in the perfectly ripe fruit; and care mustbe taken, in selecting chestnuts for seed, to observe whether they have beenpierced on the side. We have twice had chestnuts sent to us for seed fromthe celebrated tree at Vermont , planted by the hands of Washington; but inboth cases they had been pierced by some insect, and never vegetated.

Statistics. Recorded Trees. The Tortworth Chestnut ha3 been already mentioned. Lord Ducie,the proprietor of the estate on which it stands, had a portrait taken of it, from which an etchingwas made in 1772; and under it is the following inscription: — “ The east view of the ancientchestnut tree at Tortworth, in the county of Gloucester, which measures 19 yards in circumference,and is mentioned by Sir Robert Atkins, in his Histwy of that county, as a famous tree in King John ’stimej and by Mr. Evelyn, in his Sylva, to have been so remarkable for its magnitude in the reign ofKing Stephen (1135), as then to be called the Great Chestnut of Tortworth ; from which it mayreasonably be presumed to have been standing before the Conquest (1066).” {Mart. Mill.) At the timethis etching was made, it appears that the tree was barely included within the garden wall, whichbore hard upon it; but this wall has since been removed, and a top dressing of fresh soil applied tothe roots, which seems to have invigorated the tree. The native soil in which it grows is a soft clay,somewhat loamy; and the situation is on the north-west side of a hill. Sir Robert Atkins is ofopinion that it was originally several trees; and Marshall thinks that it is two trees grown together,fn 1791, Mr. Lysons found it44ft 4in. round in the thickest part; which is considerably less thanthe dimensions given by Sir Robert Atkins, who makes it 19 yards (57 ft); or by Bradley, who®akes it 51 ft. at 6 ft. above the ground. An engraving of this tree by Strutt will be found in hissylva, Britannica, of which our fig. 1924. in p. 1988. is a copy, reduced to the scale of 1 in. to 12 ft Itspresent measurement, at 5 ft. from the ground, Mr. Strutt observes, writing in 1820, is 52 ft.; which®bows an increase of 2 ft. since 1766, when, at the same height, it measured only 50 ft. “ The body is|0 ft, in height to the fork, where it divides into three limbs ; one of which, at the period already men-measure d 28 ft. 6 in. in girt, at the distance of 50 ft. from the main trunk. The solid contentsot tne tree, according to the customary method of measuring timber, are 1965 ft.; but its true geome-trical contents must be much more. Young trees have been raised from the nuts which it bore aboutjyears ago.” (Sylv. Bril., p. 85.) Lord Ducie informs us, in a letter dated 1836, that the tree is stillinth in sa *ne state as it was when drawn by Mr. Strutt; and the Rev. W. T. Bree, who saw itjn the September of that year, characterises it as “a fine and most interesting relic. I wish-.,fn c ?J lt ^ nues > “ that Strutt nad given us a figure of the whole tree, instead of the lower part only;or, though the perfect head is but a modicum, or perhaps no part at all, of the original head, it yetobject altogether.” In the park at Cobham, in Kent , is a chestnut, called the° ur Asters, figured by Strutt; the remains, as he states, “ of a most magnificent tree. (Seejmn in . P- 1989.) Its trunk is 85 ft 2 in. in circumference at the ground, avoiding the

Puts; 29fit. at 3 ft. from the ground,.33 ft. at 12ft. from the ground, and 40ft. at the poiut where

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