1990 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 
wards in oak again. In the woods of oak many young chestnut trees are found 
intermixed, which, being overpowered, make but small progress. When the 
former are felled, the latter, enjoying a freer current of air, grow vigorously, 
choke the young shoots of the oak, and assume their situations: the same has 
been remarked in other forests.” (See Trans. Soc. Arts., xii. p.113.) At present, 
the chestnut abounds in France, on the borders of the Rhine, in Dauphiné 
and the Vosges, Limousin, and a great many other places. It is common in 
the neighbourhood of Paris, especially as coppice-wood ; but the fruit is small, 
and of little value. The chestnut is cultivated, in the south of Germany, chiefly 
as undergrowth, for fence-wood, hop-poles, and vine-props. In Spain, the 
chestnut tree is grown chiefly for its fruit; which is produced in such abun- 
dance, as to be not only a common food of the peasantry, but an article of 
exportation ; the best chestnuts of the London markets being always from 
Spain; and hence, as before observed, the name of “ Spanish chestnut.” 
According to M‘Culloch, “ chestnuts from Spain and Italy are frequently 
kilndried, to prevent germination on their passage. During the three years 
ending in 1831, the entries of foreign chestnuts for home consumption ave- 
raged 20,948 bushels a year. The duty of 2s. per bushel produced, in 1832, 
a sum which proved that the consumption in that year must have amounted 
to 23,216 bushels.” 
Poetical Allusions. Virgil frequently mentions the chestnut in his Eclogues, 
for its fruit ; and in his Georgics, as a tree. In the latter, he calls it the lofty 
chestnut : “ Ut altze castanez.” In the first Eclogue he says, — 
“* Sunt nobis mitia poma, 
Castanez molles, et pressi copia lactis.” 
“* Ripe apples and soft chestnuts we have there, 
And curd abundant to supply our fare.” 
In the second Eclogue, the chestnut is again mentioned, in a passage which is 
thus rendered by Dryden: — 
“€ Myself will search our planted grounds at home, 
For downy peaches and the glossy plum ; 
And thrash the chestnuts in the neighbouring grove, 
Such as my Amaryllis used to love.” 
And Martial says :— 
** Et, quas docta Neapolis creavit, 
Lento castanee vapori tostz.” Lib. v. epig. 79. 
*< For chestnuts, roasted by a gentle heat, 
No city can the learned Naples beat.” 
The old English poets frequently allude to the chestnut. Herrick says :— 
** Remember us in cups full crown’d, 
And let our city health go round ; 
Quite through the young maids and the men, 
To the ninth number, if not ten ; 
Until the fired chestnuts leap 
For joy to see the fruits ye reap 
From the plump chalice and the cup, 
That tempts till it be tossed up.”’ 
Ben Jonson speaks of the “ chestnut whilk hath larded many a swine ;” 
Shakspeare, in Macbeth, of a “ sailor’s wife with chestnuts on her lap;” and 
Milton alludes to the custom of roasting chestnuts : — 
** While hisses on my hearth the pulpy pear, 
And black‘ning chestnuts start and crackle there.” 
In Catalonia, Philips tells us, a custom prevails of people going from house to 
house on All Saints’ Eve, believing that by every chestnut that they eat in a 
different house they will free a soul from purgatory. (Pom. Brit., p. 96.) 
Properties and Uses. Ina wild state, the nut of the chestnut affords food 
to many animals, though its leaves and wood feed but few insects; nor does 
it support many parasitic or epiphytic plants. Subjected to man, notwithstand- 
ing its near alliance to the oak, it is, both in the Old and New World, more 
