80 SYLVA BRITANNICA. 



THE CHESNUT. 



THE Chesnut is indigenous to England, and will 

 thrive in almost any soil and any situation. In 

 variety of usefulness its timber equals, and in some 

 respects excels that of the Oak. Its luxuriance of 

 foliage and feathered stems, render it conspicuous 

 among all other trees for beauty; and its fruit 

 might, by proper management, be made a valuable 

 article of food in this country, as it is in France 

 and Italy, where it is subjected to a variety of culi- 

 nary processes, that convert it into delicacies for the 

 tables of the luxurious, and into nutritious bread for 



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the humbler classes. 



The Chesnut sometimes grows to a prodigious 

 size. Evelyn speaks of one in Gloucestershire, 

 which contained " within the bowels of it, a pretty 

 wainscoted room, enlightened with windows, and 

 furnished with seats," &c. ; but the largest known 

 in the world is upon Mount Etna, in Sicily. This 



