824 



CASTANEA. 



attached by a broad scar to the bottom of the outer calyx, 

 whose outside is armed with complicated sharp prickles. 



In suitable soils in the south of England the growth 

 of the Ohesnut during youth is more rapid than that of 

 the oak, and it usually makes annual shoots of two or 

 three feet in length, and in the course of fifty or sixty 

 years frequently attains a height of from sixty to eighty 

 feet ; northwards, it is slower, but still bears the same 

 relative proportion to that of the oak. Its timber, how- 

 ever, even at this age, begins to get shaky at heart, 

 or what is termed ring-shaken, the annual layers or circles 

 at the centre separating from each other, and it is found 

 to be at its greatest perfection a few years earlier. It 

 continues, however, to live and thrive in despite of this 

 internal disorganization for many centuries afterwards, 

 as the enormous trees we meet with, as well as those 

 which have been recorded, sufficiently attest ; for, although 

 decay and disruption of fibre may take place internally 

 at the age we have stated, the tree still continues to grow 

 luxuriantly and to enlarge externally, supported by the 

 younger rings and layers of the woody fibre, and by its 

 deep-descending roots, without exhibiting for many ages 

 in its exterior any symptoms of that decay which gradu- 

 ally progresses from the centre towards the circumference. 



By some, the Ohesnut has been considered as indigenous 

 to England, and Sir J. E. Smith, in the " Eng. Flor.," 

 says, " that it appears to be wild in the south and west of 

 England. ,, The more general opinion, however, is, that it 

 is not a native, but was introduced at a very distant period, 

 probably by the Romans ; and it is even supposed that the 

 famous Chesnut at Tortworth, in Gloucestershire, the re- 

 mains of which are still in existence, may have been planted 

 during their sway. The belief which so long and so gene- 



