Scientific Intelligence, 313 



This tree, Fagus Castanea, Linn, is very abundant in New- 

 England and the middle states ; and occurs in the mountainous 

 districts, as far southward as South-Carolina, or perhaps even 

 Georgia. It is one of the stateliest trees of the forest ; scarcely 

 less distinguished by the beauty of its foliage, than by the du- 

 rability of its wood. 



By repeated analyses, conducted with the minutest attention 

 to every circumstance which could ensure accuracy, it appears, 

 incredible as it may seem, that the chesnut wooci contains twice 

 as much tannin as ross'd* oak bark, and six-sevenths as much 

 colouring matter (which gives a black with iron,) as logwood. 

 I am aware that nothing could be farther from the common ap- 

 prehension than such results ; but the uniform success of a 

 great variety of experiments in tanning and dying, in addition 

 to the other kind of evidence, should satisfy the most incre- 

 dulous 



The leather tanned with it, has, in every instance, been su- 

 perior to that tanned in a comparative experiment, with oak 

 bark ; being firmer, less porous, and at the same time more 

 pliable. The reason for this difference, will probably be 

 found in the high state of oxygenizement of the bark, particu- 

 larly of the epidermis, by which it is rendered to a certain 

 degree acrid and corrosive. Dr. Bancroft was perhaps the 

 first who noticed the oxygenizement of barks. He attributes 

 the darlt brown colour of the epidermis of his quercitron, to 

 this cause ; and as a confirmation of the idea, I have observed 

 that ink made of the epidermis of another kind of bark, though- 

 at first not to be distinguished by the colour from that made 

 of the cellular and cortical parts, is incomparably less perma- 

 nent. 



As a material for making ink, the wood of the chesnut is 

 probably unrivalled. Combined with iron in any proportion, 

 it gives, as it is dilute or concentrated, a pure blue or blue= 

 black ; while galls, sumach, &,c. &c. unless combined with a 

 greater proportion than is consistent with the highest degree 

 of permanency, afford a black more or less inclining to a red- 



* That is, the inner bark deprived of the epidermis or ont«r bark, by the shav- 

 ing knife. 



AoL.I....No. 3. 26 



