Chapter IV. 

 CHESNUT, BEECH, ELM, ASH, SERVICE. 



Chesnut and Beech — (Fagus). 

 These are both very valuable as timber trees, the 

 first for the firmness and durability of its timber 

 when exposed to the air ; and the second for the 

 many purposes to which it is applied, and its dura- 

 bility in water. 



The Chesnut tree (Fagus castanea) is generally 

 understood to be a native of Asia, in many parts of 

 which it is to be found in situations where it is not 

 very likely to have been planted. Tradition says 

 that it was brought from Asia Minor, by the Empe- 

 ror Tiberius, and that it soon spread all over the 

 warmer parts of Europe. At present, it is very 

 abundant, as a native tree, in the mountainous parts 

 of the south of Europe ; and it is also found in 

 North America, from New York to Carolina. The 

 Castagno de cento cavalli, or chesnut of the hun- 

 dred horses, upon Mount Etna, is probably the 

 largest tree in Europe, being more than two hundred 

 feet in circumference. Brj'done, a traveller who wrote 

 about fifty years ago, has given a particular descrip- 

 tion of this celebrated tree : — 



" From this place it is not less than five or six 

 miles to the great chesnut trees, through forests grow- 

 ing out of the lava, in several places almost impas- 

 sable. Of these trees there are many of an enormous 

 size, but the Castagno de cento cavalli is by much 

 the most celebrated. I have even found it marked in 

 an old map of Sicily, published near an hundred 

 years ago ; and in all the maps of Etna and its en- 

 virons, it makes a very conspicuous figure. I own I 



I 2 



