Az 
T0600 
NATURE 
[Fune 29,1871 


THE CHESTNUT TREE OF MOUNT ETNA | 
HE traveller in Sicily will recollect the little village of 
Giarre, about half way between Messina and Cata- 
nia; and since the opening of the railway between these 
cities, with a station at no great distance from its princi- 
pal street. On the sea-side below the town is the shipping 
port of Riposto, and between Riposto and Giarre lies a 
fertile plain, rich in olive and vine-yards. Géiarre itself | 
has not much to boast of, except perhaps it might do so 
of the glorious views to be seen from the slight elevation 
on which it stands. One long principal street, a large 
plain chapel, a very second-rate inn, and then there is 
nothing more to be said of the village. It is, however, 
the nearest town with an inn tothe famous giant chestnut 
tree of Mount Etna, and as such is visited by tourists. 
This fine old tree grows in the Bosco or woody region close 
above the town and on the slope of Mount Etna. A narrow, 
steep road, gradually ascending, leads from Giarre to La 

Macchia, the broad bed of a river now (in the end of May) 
from it a very fine view of Etna is obtained. The moun- 
tain, however, from this side looks low and by no means 
as imposing as when seen from the sea. A little beyond 
S. Alfio the road turns to the left still leading upwards ; 
until all of a sudden the giant tree breaks upon the view, 
the road itself running through its very midst. It stands 
about 4,000 feet above the sea level, and it requires a good 
three and a half hours to walk to it from Giarre. 
It has been calculated that this tree is about 1,000 
years of age. It is a tree, therefore, old enough to have its 
early history lost in myth; but stillit has its story ; and this 
story tells us that long ago a certain Queen of Aragon was 
passing by this way, when, from the effects of the weather, 
she and her suite, which consisted of one hundred mounted 
persons, took shelter under the shadow of its trunk and 
boughs, and so to this day and from this fact it is known 
as the Castagno di Cento Cavalli. This story is said to 
be generally believed, and, at any rate, does not appear to 
have been much discussed. Not so the tree; and very 
many opinions may be quoted all more less differing as to 
rolling down nought but clouds of dust, is passed, and | its age and size. Some believe, or have believed, that the 
the lava beds formed by the eruptions of 1689 and 1735 | tree was as large as the story tells us it was, that the in- 
are traversed, and at last S. Alfio is reached. This 
village is about four and a half miles from Giarre, and 
terior of the vast trunk has since then decayed away ; 
leaving a number of separate pieces, each large enough to 




THE CHESTNUT TREE OF MOUNT ETNA 
form a big tree, which pieces are covered with bark only 
on their outer surface. Others assert that there were here 
several large trees, more or less joined together, and 
demonstrate on the pieces of these trees still standing the | 
barky layers surrounding the whole of their stems. 
Not very long ago there were still four pieces standing, 
each of them of the dimensions of a very large tree. In 
the space surrounded by these pieces stood a hut, in which 
the annual crop of chestnut fruit was stored. One of these 
trees, or portions of the tree, has since disappeared. The 
hut has now been removed, and the road, sufficiently wide 
to allow of a carriage, runs between the remaining pieces 
and over the ground on which the hut was built. As you 
approach, one large piece of the tree is to the left-hand 
side of the road, and two larger pieces are to the right. 
It is very probable that many of the pieces believed to 
have belonged to the one original vast stem, were really 
stems themselves of independent trees, and such would | 
appear to be the case with the large trunk to the left of the | 
present roadway. But there isa strong probability that the 
two immense pieces to the right of the road were at one time 
united, and that they form part of the original tree. The 
annexed woodcut is from a photograph of these pieces. | 
30th of them are deeply hollowed out. The base of the | 
trunk to the right of the woodcut is very much decayed 
| away, and several men could shelter in it ; and the portions 
of the stems seen on looking at the picture are devoid of 
true bark. If these two portions once formed a single stem, 
then, indeed, though it might not have thrown a shadow 
sufficiently large to shade a hundred horsemen, yet 
it must have been a very giant among all the forest 
trees. Even now, in its decadence, the three stems are 
objects of sufficient interest to lead us to ask for them the 
reader’s attention. BR /PsWwe 
SCIENCE IN PLAIN ENGLISH 
Il. 
i considering the importance of Technical Education 
with reference to the practical arts, and the claims of 
Science as an element of culture, we are led to study the 
methods of teaching. 
It has been the custom in English to borrow the 
technical terms of Science from the so-called “learned 
languages,” particularly Latin and Greek. To such 
an extent has this been carried that unless a 
term bears the marks of such a derivation it is 
hardly recognised by the public as a technical term. 

