BRITISH FOREST TREES 287 



the wine producing districts of Germany this stranger from 

 lands further south bears germinative and edible seed from 

 about its twenty-fifth year, and even somewhat earlier in 

 coppice-woods. The fruit ripens and falls in October, and 

 has a germinative capacity of about 60 per cent. On the 

 more favourable localities seed or mast is produced almost 

 annually, but good seed-years occur only every three or 

 four years, like good mast-years with the beech, or good 

 vintage-years with the vine. The seed germinates in the 

 following spring, the cotyledons, as in the case of the oak, 

 being left in the ground whilst a strong tap-root makes its 

 way down into the soil. Unless collected, the seed loses its 

 germinative capacity from the effects of the winter frost. It 

 does not generally attain full edible maturity in Britain, 

 where, too, the seed developed is small in size in com- 

 parison with that ripened on the Continent. About 150 

 seeds are contained in one pound. 



Although capable of attaining large girth and a great age, 

 its maturity as a timber tree in our somewhat cold northern 

 climate should not exceed sixty to seventy years, as it is 

 then apt to develop " ring-shakes" which destroy to a con- 

 siderable extent the value of the timber, although in no 

 way interfering with the outward appearance and aesthetic 

 value of the tree for ornamental purposes. In the open it 

 can attain an age of over 500 years, and in point of longevity 

 is only rivalled by the oak and the lime. 



From asylvicultural stand-point, chestnut is chiefly valuable 

 as coppice-wood, not only for its yield in material, and its 

 fairly moderate demands on mineral strength of soil, but 

 also on account of the superior humus-producing quality of 

 its fallen leaves, and their power of recruiting and improving 

 poor or exhausted soils Its reproductive power is very great 

 and long-sustained, but its capacity for forming new roots is 

 not equal to its energy in developing stool-shoots. As coppice 



