THE CHESTNUT. 



179 



where the soil is tolerably free, it attains some height; hut 

 in poor gravelly soil, where its roots will only run along 

 the surface, the trunk attains a considerable diameter, 

 with a disproportionate spread of branches. Bosc remarks 

 that wherever he has observed Chestnuts on mountains in 

 France, Switzerland, and Italy, they were never in soils 

 or on surfaces fit for the production of corn ; where the 



FLOWER OF CHESTNUT. 



corn left off, there the Chestnuts began ; and, in climates 

 suitable for corn, the tree is only found on rocky and 

 flinty soils. 



According to Phillips, " the Chestnut seems to delight 

 in the cinerated substances thrown out of volcanoes, as is 

 shown by the thick woods of Chestnut-trees which cover 

 the surface in the neighbourhood of Vesuvius. They 



