494 pliny's NATURAL 1IIST0RY. [Book XVII. 



CHAP. 34.- — OTHER PLANTS THAT ARE CUT FOR POLES AND 



STAKES. 



The chesnut is found to produce better stays 70 for the vine 

 than any other tree, both from the facility with which they 

 are worked, their extremely lasting qualities, and the circum- 

 stance that, when cut, the tree will bud again more speedily 

 than the willow 71 even. It requires a soil that is light without 

 being gravelly, a moist, sandy, one more particularly, or else a 

 charcoal earth, 72 or a fine tufa 73 even ; while at the same time 

 a northern aspect, however cold and shady, and if upon a 

 declivity even, greatly promotes its growth. It refuses to 

 grow, however, in a gravelly soil, or in red earth, chalk, or, 

 indeed, any kind of fertilizing ground. We have already 

 stated, 74 that it is reproduced from the nut, but it will 

 only grow from those of the largest size, and then only when 

 they are sown in heaps of five together. The ground above 

 the nuts should be kept broken from the month of November 

 to February, as it is at that period that the nuts lose their 

 hold and fall of themselves from the tree, and then take 

 root. There ought to be intervals of a foot in width left 

 between them, 75 and the hole in which they are planted should 

 be nine inches every way. At the end of two years or more 

 they are transplanted from this seed plot into another, where 

 they are laid out at intervals of a couple of feet. 



Layers are also employed for the reproduction of this tree, 

 and there is none to which they are better 76 adapted : the root 

 of the plant is left exposed, and the layer is placed in the 

 trench at full length, with the summit also protruding from 

 the earth ; the result being, that it shoots from the top as well 



70 « Pedamenta," uprights, stays, stakes, or props. 



71 This is not the fact, for the chesnut both grows and buds very slowly. 



72 A black, hot kind of earth. See c. 3 of this Book. 



73 In reality, the chesnut will not thrive in a tufaceous, or, indeed, in any 

 kind of calcareous, soil. 74 In B. xv. c. 25. 



75 The heaps of five in which they are sown. 



76 The chesnut is grown with the greatest difficulty 'from layers and slips, 

 and never from suckers. Pliny borrows this erroneous assertion from 

 Columella, B. iv. c. 32. In mentioning the heaps of five nuts, Pliny seems 

 to have had some superstitious observance in view, for Columella only says 

 that they must be sown thickly, to prevent accident. The same is done at 

 the present day, in order to make provision for the depredations of field- 

 mice, rats, and mice, which are particularly fond of them. 



