88 HISTORY OF FRUITS. 



stigma, which opens into five claws, however crowded 

 they may be, to receive the farina and conduct it to the 

 proper channel. When the fruit is matured and becomes 

 of that reddish brown colour, which gives a name to 

 horses, its prickly dwelling opens into four quarters, and 

 the sap having discontinued to supply the ripened fruit, it 

 drops from its plush-lined dwelling to form future trees, 

 and to feed the various animals that await its fall, as is 

 noticed by the author of the Farmer's Boy, who says of 

 the swine : 



" From oak to oak they run with eager haste, 

 And wrangling share the first delicious taste 

 Of fallen acorns ; yet but thinly found, 

 Till the strong gale has shook them to the ground.*' 



There is no better food for deer than chesnuts, and 

 they fall from the trees when other sustenance is often 

 scarce from the dry ness of the season. 



The timber is of equal value with the best oak, and, 

 for many purposes, far exceeds it ; to which we may 

 add that it grows twice as fast. No wood is preferable- to 

 this for making casks to hold wine and other liquors, as 

 it imparts no taste to the contents, and has the property 

 of maintaining its bulk constantly, without shrinking or 

 swelling, which most other timber is apt to do, and which 

 often causes casks to burst. 



M. Bourgeois says, " that casks made of the chesnut- 

 wood contribute much to the quality of the wine, as well 

 as to the preservation of it ; the fermentation," he adds, 

 " is very slow, and the wine made in those vessels is 

 sweeter. This wood being less porous than the oak must 

 certainly prevent the evaporation of the spirituous parts. 



It has also the quality of lasting longer than elm, or 

 any other timber, when used for water-pipes, or other 

 purposes, under ground. 



