THE SWEET CHESTNUT 45 



downwards at their extremities so as sometimes 

 to sweep the ground. The whole outline of an 

 unpollarded tree is remarkably round- topped, even 

 more than is that of the Oak ; but its bright 

 pendent foliage, reflecting the sunlight, prevents 

 the general effect from being heavy. William 

 Gilpin notices how Salvator Rosa makes use of 

 this, his favourite tree, in all its forms, break- 

 ing and disposing it in a thousand beautiful 

 shapes, as the exigencies of his composition re- 

 quired. 



The Chestnut is a valuable avenue tree. Across 

 an ordinary carriage-drive the opposite trees will 

 meet in a few years, and the foliage effects will be 

 pleasing during the greater part of the year the 

 long, pointed, and sharply-toothed leaves seem to 

 partake of the evergreen character of so many of 

 the trees of the south in their thickness and gloss. 

 When young they are often of a beautiful red 

 colour, and when mature of a very pleasant shade 

 of green, without the blue tint common to many 

 grasses, and though perhaps as brown as the leaves 

 of the Buckthorn, they are redeemed from dulness 

 by their shining surfaces. They are very much 

 the colour of the Hornbeam, or of the Beech when 

 no longer young and emerald-hued though not 

 yet opaque and dull. The venation is pinnate, the 

 midrib giving off about twenty secondary veins on 

 each side, between which is a fine meshwork of 

 tertiary veins. In the bud the leaves are folded 

 phcately along the secondary veins. These fine 

 leaves, sometimes eight or nine inches long, are to 



