230 



yet all are growing together in the most perfect amity and vigour. 

 " For narrow upright hedges, to divide or enclose nursery grounds, 

 gardens, or even small fields, the beech is superior to the hornbeam, 

 or any other deciduous tree, as it not only bears the shears equally 

 well, and may be trained to as great a height, but retains the leaves 

 during winter, thus affording additional shelter and warmth, and giv- 

 ing a richness of appearance the others do not possess." — p. 315. 



It is perhaps generally known that the Spanish chesnut, although 

 here only occasionally eaten by the lower classes, forms in Italy and 

 Spain a most important article of their food, serving in great measure 

 as a substitute for bread or potatoes. The nuts are variously prepar- 

 ed, sometimes simply boiled or roasted, at others ground to flour ; " of 

 this flour, la Galette, a thickish kind of girdle cake, mixed up with a 

 little milk and salt, and sometimes with the addition of eggs and but- 

 ter, is made ; la polenta is also another preparation made by boiling 

 the chesnut flour in milk till it becomes quite thick ; when made with 

 water, it is eaten with milk in the same manner as oatmeal porridge 

 in the north of England and Scotland. Chatigna, that is, chesnuts 

 boiled and then mashed up as we do potatoes, is also another prepa- 

 ration common in France and Italy." — p. 329. 



Of the Pine Mr. Selby gives a very complete and valuable history, 

 detailing the botanical characters of the family to which it belongs, 

 the peculiarity of its wood differing from that of dicotyledonous trees, 

 the geographical distribution, the requisite soil, and various other par- 

 ticulars. With the following pleasantly written account of the fructi- 

 fication of the common pine we must conclude. 



" The male flowers or catkins, when in bloom, are from half an inch to upwards of 

 an inch long, and are placed in whorls at the base of the young shoots of the current 

 year; the flowers contain two or more stamens with large yellow anthers, which dis- 

 charge a sulphur-coloured pollen in great abundance. The embryo cones or female 

 flowers appear on the summits of the shoots of the year, in number from two to as ma- 

 ny as six, and of a green or purplish green colour. When impregnated, they become 

 lateral and reflexed, and cease to increase in size till the following spring, when they 

 again begin to swell, and by July attain their full size, ripening by degrees into ovate, 

 pointed and tessellated, hard, woody cones, from one inch and a half to two inches 

 long. These remain on the tree for a considerable time afterwards, though the seeds 

 are discharged the following spring, and it is then that trees are frequently seen with 

 cones in four difi"erent stages : viz., in the youngest or embryo state ; in an unripe or 

 green condition, but of full size; in a matured state, or when they have become brown; 

 and lastly with the scales expanded, after the seed has been shed.'' — p. 396. 



