CATKIN-BEARING TRIBE 181 



early Avriters culled the Sardian Nut, and afterwards Jupiter's Nut, and 

 Husked Nut, which last name refers to tlie nusk inclosing it. 



The Chestnut is a stately and beautiful tree, rivalling the oak in size and 

 length of years, though never quite so lofty or with such wide-spreading 

 boughs as that monarch of the Avoods. Its tall trunk is like a column, and 

 the bark is rifted and rent into innumerable clefts. The leaves are, during 

 the month of June, of a most beautiful glossy green, of a lighter colour 

 beneath, and edged with sharp spinous serratures. They are very handsome 

 in their verdant mass, and very elegant, too, is each leaf — often half a foot 

 long, sometimes twice that length, and three or four inches broad, marked 

 with strong veins, and of thin and flexible texture. Long after many trees 

 have dropped their foliage, the Chestnut has its boughs well covered with a 

 rich golden leafage, and is as beautiful as in the full rich green of spring. 

 From May to July, long and graceful spikes of greenish-yellow flowers are 

 to be seen hanging among the leaves, and looking almost like uncurled 

 tendrils. The barren flowers at the upper part of this spike are somewhat 

 drooping, and have spreading stamens ; they soon wither and fall oft". The 

 fertile flowers are fewer and grow on stalks, which finally lengthen as they 

 support the fruit. 



Some of the oldest Chestnut-trees of this country stood, probably, in 

 youthful vigour, nearly a thousand years ago, and are yet undecayed ; and 

 many an avenue, planted centuiies since, reminds us of the trees of Weston 

 Underwood, which Cowper so prized : — • 



" Not distant far a length of colonnade 

 Invites us ; monument of ancient taste 

 Now scorn'd, but worthy of a better fate ; 

 Our fatliers knew tlie value of a screen 

 From sultry suns ; and in these shaded walks, 

 And long protracted bowers, enjoyed at noon 

 The gloom and coolness of declining day. 

 Thanks to Benevolus, he spares me yet 

 These Chestnuts ranged in corresponding lines, 

 And though himself so polished, still reprieves 

 The obsolete prolixity of shade." 



The oldest Chestnut, and, with the exception of some yews, perhaps the 

 oldest tree in the kingdom, is the well-known tree which, as early as the 

 time of King John, was known as the Great Chestnut of Tortworth. It is 

 supposed to have been 300 years old in the days of that monarch, and it 

 stands yet in picturesque grandeur, covered at its season with graceful leaves. 

 Many a solitary wanderer has sat beneath its shadow, musing on its past 

 history and future length of days, as many a one sits j^et, knowing that when 

 he is laid in his last resting-place, the wind will still stir its branches and the 

 April shower patter on its leaves. It was formerly much compressed by the 

 wall of the garden on which it stood ; but the late Earl Ducie, in whose 

 grounds it stood, removed this, and placed fresh soil about its base ; and the 

 old tree re-awakened to a more vigorous life. At a height of five feet above 

 the ground the diameter of its trunk was then twelve feet, and its circum- 

 ference fifty-two feet ; yet this must have appeared a mere sapling when 

 compared with one which grew not many years since on the slope of Mount 



