THE CHESTNUT. 177 



farinaceous nuts ; the latter, by having its barren flowers 

 in globular heads, and by bearing oily nuts — characters 

 strong enough to mark different genera. It is well dis- 

 tinguished by its large, sharply serrated leaves, which are 

 smooth and glossy^ by its long tendril- like spikes of flowers 

 in July, and in autumn by its bunches of nuts inclosed in 

 cases thickly beset with complicated sharp prickles. *Sir 

 James E. Smith describes it as a stately and majestic tree, 

 rivalling, if not exceeding, the British Oak in size and 

 duration. The bark is remarkable for its deep and wide 

 clefts, which seem to have furnished ideas for some orna- 

 ments in Grothic architecture. Gilpin, who also compares 

 it to the Oak, says that its ramification is more straggling 

 but easy, and its foliage loose. This is the tree which graces 

 the landscapes of Salvator Rosa. In the mountains of 

 Calabria, where Salvator painted, the Chestnut flourished. 

 There he studied it in all its forms, breaking and disposing 

 it in a thousand beautiful shapes, as the exigencies of his 

 comjDosition required. We And it indeed nearly always 

 forming a prominent feature in his bold and rugged land- 

 scapes, many of his most striking scenes being drawn from 

 the wild haunts and natural fastnesses of that romantic 

 country,- wherein he passed so many of his youthful days, 

 (lilpin supposes that this great painter's fondness for the 

 Chestnut is owing to its liability to be shattered by storms. 

 Bosc is of opinion, that as an ornamental tree it ought to 

 be placed before the Oak. Its beautiful leaves, he says, 

 which are never attacked by insects, and which hang on 

 the trees till very late in autumn, mass better than those 

 of the Oak and give more shade. An old Chestnut, stand- 

 ing alone, produces a superb efiect. A group of young 

 Chestnuts forms an excellent background to other trees ; 

 but a Chestnut-coppice is insupportably monotonous. 



But it is in Italy that it is to be seen in all its grandeur. 

 Sir T. D. Lauder speaks of having "roamed for miles 

 through the high-roofed leafy shades of the endless Chest- 

 nut-forests, which hung everywhere on the sides and roots 

 I 3 



