SPANISH CHESTNUTS IN SCOTLAND. ■4i9' 



second to the oak in this respect. It is, however, largely used in 

 Spain and Southern Europe as charcoal for forge purposes, 

 for which it is generally considered superior to that obtained f rona 

 any other description of wood. The fruit of the Spanish chest- 

 nut, as is well known, is valuable in southern countries as an 

 article of food, and as such it is variously used. 



The soil in which the Spanish chestnut has been proved to 

 succeed best in this country is a sandy loam, of good medium 

 quality and depth. In rich heavy soils, the wood is apt, as it 

 were, to outgrow its age, and becomes soon " deceitfully brittle " 

 and useless. It will succeed in clayey loam if there be sufficient 

 drainage to prevent the soil being too tenacious of moisture ; and 

 it is found of very large size frequently on trap rock, and red 

 sandstone formations, even where there is comparatively little 

 depth of superincumbent soil. In thin and gravelly soil it 

 attains a great age, and frequently develops an immense girth of 

 trunk, but does not, in such sites, present that noble bole and 

 majestic front we see it possess in better soils, but retains the 

 appearance of having been early pollarded. 



As an ornamental park tree it is unrivalled, even by the oak or 

 sycamore. Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, no mean authority either 

 in aesthetics in art or nature, or on matters of arboricultural 

 interest, and one whose opinion is valuable, highly eulogised the 

 Spanish chestnut, and remarks that " it is perhaps the noblest 

 tree in our British Sylva." Selby, also, whose love of trees in 

 landscape effect and woodland adornment is well known, \vrites 

 of the chestnut — "In all our park and woodland ornamental 

 scenery, whether as a single tree, it is intended to stand promi- 

 nently forward in all its indi^ddual beauty and magnificence, or 

 in combination with other denizens of the forest, to give 

 additional effect by the contrast and tufting of its rich and 

 splendid foliage, and the outHne of its form, the Spanish chestnut 

 ought to be freely introduced, and with a more liberal hand than 

 appears hitherto to have prevailed. Profit on such occasions 

 ought never to be considered, and it is the eye and taste alone 

 that are to be consulted." But notwithstanding his indirect 

 allusion to the scarcity in this country of the Spanish chestnut, 

 and his desire for its more general introduction, Selby refers to 

 several old and remarkable instances of its occurrence in Scot- 

 land. " It is found," says he, quoting the words of Sir T. Dick 

 Lauder, " near all the old aristocratical residences of that country." 

 He notices the chestnut at Eiccarton, near Edinburgh, and men- 

 tions that its trunk measured upwards of 27 feet in circumference. 

 This statement was written in 1842, and we have pleasure in the 

 catalogue appended to this paper in giving later data regarding this 

 tree, and its subsequent history and details of growth. The cele- 

 brated Einhaven chestnut is also noticed by Selby, " and was," he 



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