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, 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 del cento cavalli, or cries- 

 nut of the hundred horses, upon Mount Etna, is 

 probably the largest tree in Europe, being more than 

 two hundred feet in circumference. Brydone, a tra- 

 veller who wrote about fifty years ago, has given a 

 particular description 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 dei cento cavalli is by much 

 the most celebrated. I have even found it marked in 

 an old map of Sicily j published near an hundred 

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



