DECIDUOUS ORNAMENTAL TREES. 177 



away for the winter's consumption. Old Evelyn says, 

 "the bread of the flour is exceedingly nutritive : it is a 

 robust food, and makes women well complexioned, as I 

 have read in a good author. They also make fritters of 

 chestnut flour, which they wet with rose-water, and 

 sprinkle with grated parmigans, and so fry them in fresh 

 butter for a delicate." The fruit of the chestnut abounds 

 in saccharine matter ; and we learn from a French 

 periodical, that experiments have been made, by which it 

 is ascertained that the kernel yields nearly sixteen pel 

 cent, of good sugar. 



As a timber tree, this is greatly inferior to the oak, being 

 looser grained, and more liable to decay ; and the 

 American wood is more open to this objection than that 

 produced on the opposite side of the Atlantic. It is, 

 however, in general use among us, for posts and rails in 

 fencing ; and when the former are charred, they are found 

 to be quite durable. 



The finest natural situations for this tree appear to be 

 the mountainous slopes of mild climates, where it attains 

 the greatest possible perfection. Michaux informs us, that 

 the most superb and lofty chestnuts in America are to be 

 found in such situations, in the forests of the Carolinas. 

 Abroad, every one will call to mind the far-famed chestnuts 

 of Mount Etna, of wonderful age and extraordinary size. 

 The great chestnut there, has excited the surprise of 

 numerous travellers ; at present, however, it appears to be 

 scarcely more than a mere shell, the wreck of former 

 greatness. When visited by M. Houel (Arboretum Brit), 

 it was in a state of decay, having lost the greater part of 

 its branches, and its trunk was quite hollow. A house wag 



erected in the interior, an^ some country people resided ID 



12 



