HORSE-CHESNUT. 97 



turner, and often by the cabinet-maker as a substitute for 

 wainscot-oak, to which in appearance it approaches so 

 nearly that none but those who are accustomed to work on 

 these woods can discern the difference. It is also said to 

 be more durable than many harder kinds of timber when 

 used for under-ground pipes, &c. 



The most common observer of Nature must have ad- 

 mired with what wonderful security the buds of these 

 trees are guarded against the inclemency of the winter, 

 and the rapacity of insects. No sooner are the flowers 

 fallen, than the buds for the succeeding year are formed, 

 which continue swelling till autumn, at which time the 

 folding covers are spread over with a thick tenacious 

 juice, which, like pitch, hardens with the cold, and thus 

 defends its tender buds from the frost and rain in winter, 

 but which is never so far hardened but it melts and runs 

 off upon the first return of warmth in the spring : the 

 young bud then escapes and grows with such rapidity 

 that in less than three weeks it is often found to have 

 made a shoot of eighteen inches in length, and to have 

 fully expanded its fine leaf. 



On opening the fruit we find a vacuum so perfectly 

 formed for the shape of the leaf, that even the impression 

 for the veins is distinctly to be seen. That part of the 

 germ which forms the root escapes without opening the 

 nut, and as it extends in the earth it sends up moisture, 

 which swells the germ until the vacuum is filled and the 

 first leaves are perfectly formed by the impression, when 

 the fruit opens and the bud escapes. 



