1862.] CASTANEA VULGARIS. 295 



the doubt ; and for this reason, and for its many excellent qualities 

 it should not be denied a place among the spontaneous produc- 

 tions of England. 



Ray, the greatest of all our botanists previous to the present 

 age, does not hesitate to place it among the natives. It may be 

 said that he places wheat and barley also among English plants. 

 His remark on the locality of the Chestnut is, " in some woods 

 near Sittingbourn, Kent, and Woburn, Beds ; but whether spon- 

 taneous or anciently sown there I cannot determine." Is there 

 anybody can ? The tree has been in this island ever since the 

 Romans had dominion in these isles, probably before. Little 

 v.eight should be attached to Caesar's relation, " that all the trees 

 which grow in Gaul are common to Britain, except the Beech 

 and Pine." We know that this is not true — all the trees of Gaul, 

 or France, are not to be found here ; and there may have been 

 trees in Britain which the great Roman conqueror did not see. 

 Besides, it is the Beech, and not the Chestnut, which Csesar 

 tells us was not in Britain ; but, as some erroneously fancy 

 that the great Roman wrote ' Beech ' where he should have 

 written ' Chestnut,' it has been deemed expedient to make 

 the above remark. Sir James E. Smith, one of the greatest 

 modern botanists, informs us that " it appears to be wild in 

 the south and west of England, and its timber has been em- 

 ployed in some of our oldest buildings." He further tells us 

 '' that it rivals if it does not exceed the British Oak in size and 

 duration" (vol. i v. p. 151). Withering states (vol. ii. p. 445, ed. 

 1796), that '^some of the oldest buildings in London are said to 

 be constructed with this wood ; at Tartworth, in Gloucestershire, 

 there is a tree fifty-two feet round. It is pi'oved to have stood 

 there ever since the year 1150, and was then so remarkable as to 

 be called ' the great Chestnut of Tartworth.' " 



In the ' Gentleman's Magazine ' for 1766, p. 321, there is both 

 a figure and a history of this tree by the famous Peter Collinson, 

 who had no doubt of the Chestnut being a native of England ; 

 and he assigns as the reason why these trees are rarely found of 

 large size in woods, that the profit from cutting and selling them 

 for hop-poles is very much greater than that derivable from their 

 timber and lop. Another reason may be assigned for the non-exclu- 

 sion of tliis fine tree from our herbaria of native plants is, that if 

 •we tliscard this species we must disown the Tilias, our valuable 



