284 OUR COMMON FRUITS. 



stayed by means of burning heath in the hollow of the 

 tree (for the wood, which is therefore little esteemed as 

 fuel, smoulders instead of blazing) until the interior sur- 

 face is charred, when it will survive many years, if the 

 operation has been carefully performed. The huge Chest- 

 nut on Mount Etna, said to be the largest tree in Europe, 

 has but a mere shell of the trunk remaining, the heart- 

 wood having long since completely decayed. This liabi- 

 lity to internal disease drew on it the animadversion of 

 Evelyn, who quaintly says, " I cannot celebrate this tree 

 for its sincerity, it being found that, contrary to the oak y 

 it will make a fair show outwardly when it is all decayed 

 and rotten within ; but this is in some sort recompensed, 

 if it be true that the beams made of chestnut-tree have 

 this property, that being somewhat brittle, they give 

 warning and premonish the danger by a certain crackling, 

 so as, it is said, to have frightened those out of the baths 

 of Antandro, whose roof was laid with this material." 

 Another and a better compensation for this early rotting 

 of the living tree is that the timber, if cut while sound, 

 will never become worm-eaten, and scarcely any insect 

 will touch the leaves, though the nut is very liable to the 

 attack of a kind of weevil, the eggs of. which are depo- 

 sited in the young fruit, involving the need of careful 

 inspection when selecting them to plant. Twice were 

 some Chestnuts sent to Mr. Loudon as seed-nuts from 

 the celebrated tree at Yermont planted by "Washington, 

 but both times they were found on arrival to have been 

 insect pierced, and consequently never vegetated. 



In its choice of soils this tree seems particularly judi- 

 cious in fixing on the localities where it is most likely to 

 be welcome. "Wherever I have seen Chestnut-trees," 

 says Bosc, " and I have seen them in a great many different 

 localities, they were never in soils or on surfaces fit for 

 the production of corn. On mountains in Prance, Swit- 

 zerland, and Italy, wherever Chesnut begins, corn leaves 

 off"." Forming a striking feature in wild scenery, the 

 Chestnut-tree was specially dear to Salvator Rosa, reap- 

 pearing constantly in his pictures ; and the poet's famous 

 " leaves in Yallombrosa" consist, too, mostly of its foliage. 



