NUTS. 283 



followed at Limousin and Perigord. It is usual to collect 

 the nuts when ripe as they fall from the tree ; but if bad 

 weather should set in, the remainder are beaten off at 

 once with long poles, and the husks are trodden off by 

 sabot-shod peasants ; but when thus gathered they are 

 fit only for immediate use. 



Though employed only for food in Europe, a beverage 

 is prepared from them in Africa, Thunberg affirming that 

 the Hottentots employ the Wild Chestnuts growing in 

 their country in a similar manner to what we do coffee, 

 the nuts being first steeped in water, then boiled, and 

 afterwards roasted, ground, and made into drink. 



The fruit constitutes the chief commercial value of the 

 tree, for the wood is of very little use as timber, though 

 at one time a contrary opinion was entertained, founded 

 on an erroneous belief that it had been used for the roofs 

 of many old cathedrals in France, of the Louvre, and of 

 our own "Westminster Hall. About the end of last cen- 

 tury the Society of Arts, under the influence of this mis- 

 take, strongly recommended the Chestnut for cultivation, 

 even offering rewards for planting it, until the error was 

 discovered, the great Buffon demonstrating that oak wood, 

 after the lapse of many years, assumes the appearance of 

 chestnut, and Daubenton afterwards proving that in most 

 of the cases mentioned that was the timber that had ac- 

 tually been used. As regards Westminster Hall, a paper 

 was laid before the Institute of Architects in 1858 which 

 satisfactorily proved that chestnut timber was not among 

 the materials of that building, the wood which had been 

 mistaken for it being really oak. For some purposes, 

 however, it is really preferred to even that type of British 

 toughness, and in America, where, too, the nuts are con- 

 sidered to be sweeter than those of Europe, it is looked 

 <on as among the most useful wood in the forest, being 

 largely used for posts and rails. 



This wood has the singular property of being best 

 when young, for after 50 or 60 years, and often much 

 sooner, it begins to decay at the heart, and the corrup- 

 tion then spreads outwards until the whole trunk is con- 

 sumed and perishes. In the Cevennes this process is 



