NTJTS. 281 



this is only developed when water is added to the bruised 

 kernel, being generated by the contact of water with the 

 vegetable albumen. 



But if the various nuts already mentioned are held in 

 high esteem for furnishing a mere adjunct to a meal, how 

 much more consideration may be claimed bj one viz., 

 the Chestnut, which provides the sole daily food of 

 thousands ! Though in this country ranking only as a 

 luxury, it is yet one accessible to almost the poorest, being 

 sold at a cheaper rate than any of its brethren even here, 

 where it is a foreign import ; for though the Chestnut- 

 tree is common enough in England, the nuts it bears are 

 usually almost worthless. It does not, indeed, bring its 

 fruit to perfection in any climate except where the grape 

 also will ripen freely in the open air. Notwithstanding 

 the great similarity of the fruits, this tree is no relation 

 to the Horse Chestnut, there being no other point of re- 

 semblance between them, and they belong to quite dis- 

 tinct botanical orders, their blossoms even being singu- 

 larly unlike, considering that they develop into a fruit 

 almost exactly identical in appearance, both as regards 

 the prickly outer husk, the brown leathery inner one, and 

 the white solid substance of the nut within ; the yellow 

 pendulous catkins almost as long as the leaves, with many 

 anthered fertile flowers arranged here and there in tufts 

 upon the twigs of the Sweet Chestnut, offering no indi- 

 cation of an issue having anything in common with that of 

 the spring glory of Bushey Park, those stately pyramids 

 of delicate petals, lighting up the dusky foliage amid 

 which they gleam so fairly, like a feast of lanterns of 

 Nature's own devising. The fruit, however, is not so 

 similar as it appears, botanists considering the prickly 

 part of the fruit of the Sweet Chestnut as an involucre, 

 analagous to the cup of the acorn or beard of the Filbert, 

 while that of theHorse Chestnut is a pericarp, containing 

 real seeds, the corresponding part in the former being 

 actually seed-vessels. 



The generic name of the chestnut, Castanea, is derived 

 from its native place, a city of Pontus, whence it was 

 brought to Greece, and first planted there, in the classic 



