Editorial Notes. 60 1 



article of food, in the same manner as the inhabitants of Southern 

 Europe use it at the present time. In colour and richness of foliage, 

 and the massive outline of its large and spreading head, it is unsur- 

 passed by any other of our largest deciduous timber trees, for telling 

 effect in park scenery, or in the general landscape. The famous 

 Castagno de Cento Cavalli on Mount Etna is supposed to be one of 

 the oldest as well as one of the largest of trees on record. Brydon, who 

 measured it in 1770, gives 204 feet as the circumference of this ancient 

 giant of the forest, but many have doubted if this were really one tree 

 originally ; Brydon himself says that it had the appearance of five 

 distinct trees, only there was no bark on the inside, and he was assured 

 the interior had been formerly a solid mass of timber. The most 

 remarkable of these trees in England, and perhaps the oldest, if not 

 one of those originally introduced by the Eomans, is the gigantic tree 

 at Tortworth Court, the seat of the Earl of Ducie, in Gloucestershire. 

 It grows on the north-west slope of a hill, on a rich, loamy clay, and 

 is said to have been called the " Great Tree of Tortworth," or " Great 

 Chestnut," in the reign of King Stephen, In 1820, Strutt gives it a 

 circumference of 52 feet at five feet from the ground, and the con- 

 tents he puts at 1,965 cubic feet. Later measurements make it about 

 46 in circumference at the top of the swell of the roots. Many other 

 noble Spanish chestnuts are to be met with in almost every county 

 of England ; and in Scotland trees are to be found from 25 feet to 

 30 feet in circumference, the latter being the girth of a tree growing 

 near Cambusnethan, Lanarkshire. They are also to be found, over 20 

 feet in circumference, in various parts of Ireland ; some grand 

 specimens existing near Cappoquin, county Waterford, at Courtown, 

 county Wexford, and in many of the old demesnes in the southern 

 parts of the country. 



In appearance and colour the wood has a great resemblance to that 

 of the oak, but may always be distinguished from it by wanting the 

 large transverse fibres or lamiu?e which are so distinctly seen in the 

 wood of the oak. The latter, after a certain period, puts on an appear- 

 ance very similar to that of the chestnut, and the roofs of many old 

 cathedrals and churches, both in this country and on the Continent, 

 which were once supposed to be constructed of chestnut timber, have 

 proved upon careful examination to be that of oak. Chestnut timber 

 was held in such high estimation towards the end of the last century, 

 that the Society of Arts was induced to ofier large premiums to 

 encourage its more extensive planting by landowners. This had the 

 effect of considerably increasing its numbers in the country, the Earl 

 of Eife alone having planted about that time over 60,000 of it on his 

 estates in Morayshire. 



Evelyn, in his Sijluia, says that chestnut wood is good for mill timber 



