DECIDUOUS TREES. 



Fig. 105. 



333 



soils, and attains its best proportions in such places. Loudon re- 

 marks of the European chestnut, Casta/ica vesca (of which the 

 American is classed as a variety only), "It will not thrive in 

 stiff tenacious soil ; and in a rich loam its timber, and even its 

 poles and hoops, are brittle and good for nothing. In loamy soils 

 at the bottom of mountains, and in loam incumbent on clay, it 

 attams a large size, and in so short a time, that, according to Sang, 

 wherever the chestnut is planted in its proper soil and situation, it 

 will outgrow any other tree in the same length of time, except per- 

 haps the larch, the willow, and some of the poplars. According 

 to Bosc it will not thr^ive in calcareous soil, but those lying over 

 granite, gneiss, and sc^istus, and which are composed of the debris 

 of these rocks, appear particularly suitable for it. It thrives well 

 among rocks where there is apparently very little soil, insinuating 

 itself among their fissures and chinks, and attaining a large size." 

 "Wherever I have seen chestnut trees," observes the same author, 

 " and I have seen them in a great many different localities, they 

 were never on soils or on surfaces Jit for the production of corn. 

 On mountains in France, Switzerland, and Italy, the chestnut 

 begins where the corn leaves off; and in climates suitable for 

 corn, the tree is only found on rocky or flinty soils." 



