SPANISH CHESTNUT 127 



inches long, and in the Autumn are very varied and rich 

 in colour. Few creatures care for them, but amongst these 

 few may be mentioned the caterpillars of the common, but 

 curiously marked, buff-tip moth. 



The flowers are monoecious in arrangement and should 

 be sought for in May. The barren flowers are exceedingly 

 numerous and arranged in little clusters along a very lono- 

 stem. The stamens of each little flower of the cluster 

 stand boldly out and form a conspicuous feature. These 

 spikes of stamen-bearing flowers may be seen in a now 

 withered state in our figure. The pistillate flowers are 

 much fewer in number and are usually in groups of three 

 within a leafy, four-lobed cup of bracts, or involucre. The 

 odour of the flowers is powerful and peculiar, and to some 

 persons very disagreeable. 



The nuts, singly or in pairs, are within the enlarged 

 prickly involucre.^ In our illustration one of these spiny 

 protecting balls is yet closed, while the other is opening 

 and showing within it the fruit. The nut is not round 

 like an acorn, but flat on one side for greater convenience 

 of packing. 



These nuts, though plentifully produced, do not 

 ordinarily come to maturity in England, though Shakespeare 

 in various passages refers to them as an article of food. 

 Deer are very fond of them, as also are mice, squirrels, 

 and divers other creatures. Abroad they are largely used 

 as a table vegetable, and even as a substitute for bread, 

 but then the foreign chestnuts it must not be forgotten, 

 are much better than anything of the sort that we can orow. 



1 



The fruit is inclosed in round and rough and pricklie huske like to 

 an hedge-hog or vrchin, which opening itselfe doth let fall the ripe fruit. 



