174 THE CHESTNUT. 



simple and feather- veined ; in the horse-chestnut 

 they are septate. The flowers of the latter are pro- 

 duced in superb clusters, every corolla having its 

 whiteness richly broken with patches of gold and 

 crimson ; those of the sweet chestnut, on the other 

 hand, are destitute of the brightness we connect 

 with the idea of blossom. They are unisexual also ; 

 the males growing in slender spikes, the females in 

 prickly knobs. 



The purpose we had in view at the beginning is 

 now completed; namely, the giving some account 

 of the forest and other large and commanding trees 

 ordinarily met with in Great Britain. There are 

 many more trees of a smaller description, and all 

 have abundance of interesting and curious history 

 and association, so that these chapters, were it de- 

 sirable at the present time, might be trebled. Who, 

 for instance, is unacquainted with the elder, the 

 blossoming of which is a sign that summer is 

 matured, and the fruit of which shows, in its black- 

 ness, that summer is over ? Then there are the 

 wild pear, the wild apple, the wild medlar, and the 

 wild cherry, trees mostly loaded in spring with 

 snowy bloom. After these we find the guelder-rose, 

 the tamarisk, the box, and the spindle-tree; the 

 Frangula, the buckthorn, and the dogwood. The 



