162 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
keep them in earthen vessels in a cold place. Some lay them in a smoak loft, 
others in dry barley straw, others m sand, &¢.” One of the modes of drying 
chestnuts in order to preserve them for several years, is to place those which have 
been collected from the ground on coarse sieves in a dry place, and afterwards 
expose them to the sun, or to boil them for a quarter of an hour, and then dry 
them in an oven. In Limousin and Périgord, where the chestnut flour is used, 
for making the kind of cake called Ja galette, and the thick porridge called la polenta, 
which are the common food of the peasantry, the chestnuts are dried with smoke. A 
thin layer of seeds or nuts which have been deprived of their outer husks, is laid on a 
kind of kiln pierced with holes, and a fire is made below with the husks and part of 
the wood of the tree, which is only permitted to smoulder, and is not suffered to 
burst into a flame. Ina short time the chestnuts begin to sweat: the fire is then 
extinguished, and they are allowed to cool. They are then thrown aside, and a 
fresh layer spread out. When a sufficient quantity of chestnuts is thus prepared to 
cover the floor of the kiln at least one foot deep, they are laid upon it, and a gentle 
fire is made below, which is gradually augmented during two or three days, and is 
then continued during nine or ten days, the chestnuts being regularly turned like 
malt, till the nuts part readily from their skins; they are then put into sacks, which 
have been previously wet, and thrashed with sticks, or rubbed upon a large bench or 
table, after which they are winnowed, and are then ready for the mill. During the 
process of drying, the fire is watched night and day, and the under side of the floor of 
the kiln (or hurdles, if these have been used as a substitute for a paved floor) must 
be frequently swept to clear it from the soot. The dust which escapes from the 
chestnuts when they are winnowed, together with the broken nuts, are carefully pre- 
served for feeding cattle, and are called in France biscat. The usual modes of cooking 
chestnuts in France are boiling them in water simply with a little salt, or with leaves 
of celery, sage, or any other herbs, to give them a flavour, or roasting them in hot 
ashes or a coffee-roaster. In whatever way they are cooked, the French cook always 
slits the skin of all but one, and when that cracks and flies off, it is a sign that the 
rest are done. 
Chestnut flour will keep good for year's in casks or earthen bottles well protected 
from the air. Chestnuts well boiled in water, and then broken and mashed up like 
potatoes, form a good dish, and a sweetmeat common in the confectioners’ shops in 
Paris, known as marrons glacés, is made by dipping the chestnuts into clarified sugar, 
and then drying them. Evelyn says that in his time “the best tables in France and 
Italy make chestnuts a service, eating them with salt in wine, or pine of lemons and 
sugar, being first roasted in embers on the chaplet. In Italy they boil them in wine, 
and then smoke them a little. These they call ausere or geese : I know not why. 
Those of Piedmont add fennel, cinnamon, and nutmeg to their wine, but first they 
peel them. Others macerate them in rosewater. The bread of the flour is exceed- 
ingly nutritive ; it is a robust food, and makes women well complexioned, as I have 
read ina good author. They also make fritters of chestnut flour, which they wet 
with rosewater, and sprinkle with grated parmigans, and “so fry them in fresh 
butter for a delicate.” Evelyn also says, that the flour of chestnuts made into an 
electuary with honey, and eaten fasting, is an approved remedy against spitting of 
blood and the cough: and a decoction of the rind of the tree tinctures hair of a golden 
colour, esteemed a beauty in some countries.” The prescription is also given by 
Gerard in his Herbal. Sugar is said to have been obtained from chestnuts in France 
by the same process as is used for the extraction of sugar from beet, and at the rate of 
14 per cent., which is more than the average produce of the best root. Lately we 
