552 



FAG 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL: 



FAG 



When the branches begin again to meet, they must be re- 

 duced as before, and left twenty-four feet asunder, at which 

 distance they may remain. The wood of this last felling will 

 saw into small boards, and being about twenty years old, 

 must be rooted out, for the Chestnut shoots vigorously from 

 stools. The remaining trees, having produced fruit for seve- 

 ral years, will now bear vast quantities, and make great 

 returns of profit. The Chestnut will thrive on almost any 

 soils, and in all situations, if there be no standing water; it 

 succeeds best in a rich loamy land ; but will flourish very well 

 on gravel, clay, or sand. All mixed soils suit it, as well as 

 exposed places, and the declivities of hills. In foreign coun- 

 tries, where the Chestnut is cultivated for the fruit, they graft 

 cions from trees bearing the largest and fairest fruit, upon 

 stocks raised from the nut. These grafted trees are, however, 

 unfit for timber, and are called marroniers by the French. 

 The varieties with striped or blotched leaves are maintained 

 by budding, and inarching upon common Chestnut stock. 

 The Chestnut-tree has its name Casianea, from a town of the 

 name of Castauis, in Thessaly, about which this tree grew in 

 great abundance: it has the same appellation in all the Eu- 

 ropean languages ; the Germans call it castanienbaum ; the 

 Swedes and Danes, castanientrce ; the French, chataitjnier ; 

 the Italians, cn.sta.gno : the Spanish, castano; the Portuguese, 

 castanheiro ; the Russians, keschtan. 



2. Fagus Pumili ; Dwarf Chestnut Tree, or Chinrjua Pine. 

 Leaves lanceolate-ovate, acutely serrate, tomentose under- 

 neath; aments filiform, knotty. This seldom grows above 

 twelve or fourteen feet high, but produces abundance of nuts, 

 which are generally single in each capsule. This tree is very 

 hardy, and will resist the severest of our winters in the open 

 ground, but is very apt to decay in summer, especially in a dry 

 soil. But although it delights in moisture, yet, if the wet 

 continues long upon the ground in winter, it frequently de- 

 stroys the trees. It is very common in the woods of America, 

 but rare in England. The nuts of the Chinqua Pine, or Dwarf 

 Virginian Chestnut, should be put up in sand as soon as they 

 are ripe, and shipped off immediately, otherwise they will lose 

 their vegetating quality. When the puts arrive in England, 

 they should be put into the ground as soon as possible ; and 

 if the winter should prove severe, cover the ground with leaves, 

 tan, or pease-haulm, to prevent the frost from penetrating to 

 the nuts. 



3. Fagus Sylvatica; Common Beech Tree. Leaves ovate, 

 obscurely serrate. This tree will <;row to a very large size, 

 lofty, and spreading, the trunk straight, and covered with a 

 whitish bark ; the leaves are smooth and glossy, waved on 

 the edges, rather than serrate, or slightly sinuate-toothed, 

 three inches and more in length, and two or upwards in 

 breadth; the petioles reddish, slightly grooved above, four 

 or five lines in length, pubescent, as is also the midrib 

 of the leaf; stipules reddish-brown, shining, lanceolate, 

 conspicuous. It retains the old leaves through the winter. 

 The male catkins come out in bunches from the ends of the 

 small branches ; they are roundish, obtuse, half an inch long, 

 and almost as broad, on peduncles from half an inch to 

 fourteen lines in length, pendulous, round, and pubescent; 

 calix cut half way into six sharp villose yellowish segments ; 

 stamina' uncertain, four, six, eight, nine, eleven, or twelve, 

 from the bottom of the calix; the female aments come out 

 from the same place, a little above the others, they are erect, 

 and on round, whitish, villose peduncles, four lines or up- 

 wards in length; the common involucre has two flowers, is 

 four-cleft, and covered with soft spines ; calix superior, six- 

 leaved, tomentose ; gerrnen three-celled, with two rudiments 

 of seeds in each cell ; styles three, or, according to Geertner, 



one-cleft; stigmas awl-shaped, and slightly hooked, yellow- 

 ish and smooth ; at the top of the germen there are also six 

 whitish villose segments, shorter than the styles. The fruit is 

 composed of two nuts joined at the base, covered with an 

 almost globular four-valved involucre, with soft spines on the 

 outside, but within very smooth and silky; the nuts, when 

 ripe, are one-celled and triangular, and contain one or two 

 angular seeds. The Beech is very well adapted to form lofty 

 hedges, to surround plantations or large wilderness quar- 

 ters, or for screens, where there is not room for trees to ex- 

 tend their branches naturally. Although the timber of this 

 tree is not so valuable as that of many others, yet as it grows 

 very fast in chalky or stony ground of little value, with a 

 clear smooth bark and straight trunk ; as it will thrive on 

 such soils and in such situations as better trees will Scarcely 

 grow on ; and as it will resist winds on the declivities 

 of hills better than most other trees ; the planting of it 

 should be encouraged, especially as it affords an agreeable 

 shade, and the leaves both make a fine appearance in 

 summer, and continue green as long in autumn as any of 

 the deciduous trees, when they turn brown or orange, 

 and frequently hold on all the winter. In parks, there- 

 fore, and other plantations for pleasure, this tree deserves 

 to be cultivated among those of the first class, especially 

 where the soil is adapted to it. But though the wood of 

 the Beech be brittle, and decays soon in the air, yet it will 

 endure long under water, and serves for a great variety of 

 uses, as will appear from (he following account : It is of great 

 use to turners for ranking trenchers, dishes, trays, buckets, 

 &c. to the joiner, for stools, bedsteads, and other furni- 

 ture; to the wheel and millwright; it makes shovels and 

 spade-grafTs for the husbandman ; and is useful to the bel- 

 lows-maker : floats for fishermen's nets, instead of corks, are 

 made of its bark. It is good for fuel, billet, bavin, and coals, 

 though one of the least lasting; and the very shavings are 

 excellent for fining of wine. When the timber lies altogether 

 under water, it is scarcely inferior to Elm. Baskets for Straw- 

 berries are made of the bark ; of the thin lamina or scale of 

 the wood, scabbards for swords, band-boxes, hat-cases, &c. 

 The leaves are used abroad, on account of their elastic qua- 

 lity, instead of straw, for the paillasse, to lay under their 

 mattresses. To the above enumeration of its uses by Mr. 

 Evelyn, we may add many other. It is now in much repute 

 among the cabinet-makers, for chairs, both plain and painted ; 

 for bedsteads, with the posts frequently stained the colour 

 of mahogany. In the country it is much used for rafters, 

 in building. Much of it is cut out into quarters and planks 

 for various purposes ; and barn floors are frequently laid with 

 it. The millwright uses it for cogs, &c. and the wheelwright 

 for spokes and fellies; it goes to the dock-yards for wedges, 

 and may be used in ships' bottoms from the keel to the floor- 

 heads; and is known in the coal mines under the name of 

 Newcastle railing. Being of an even grain, and without 

 knots, it makes beautiful benches and railing for public 

 rooms, and many sorts of inside work in houses. 'It is formed 

 into gun-stocks, tool-handles, mallets, carpenters' planes, 

 heel-pieces, pegs for heels; and into sounding-boards for 

 harpsichords, by the musical-instrument makers. The soap- 

 cask coopers cut it into staves for dry goods, for which pur- 

 pose a considerable quantity is imported as ballast from 

 Bremen and Dantzic, in slabs and clapboards about five feet 

 in length. It is said that these coopers consume from twenty 

 to thirty thousand of these clapboards yearly, except in time- 

 of war, when the importation is stopped. It is excellent 

 fuel, and in burning affords a large quantity of potash. 

 Much of it is sent to the metropolis, under the name of 



