On the value of the Horse-Chesnut as a Timber-Tree. 215 



and farmsteads, as well as to parks and mansions. The 

 native trees, such as the ash and wych elm, will always 

 assert their rights in our woodlands ; but even they will 

 benefit by the introduction of other species more freely 

 amongst them. The Horse-Chesnut has thoroughly natur- 

 alised itself in our Border region. It rises freely from the 

 nuts, which ripen in ordinary seasons up to the elevation of 

 five hundred feet and more over the sea, on the skirts of the 

 Cheviots: and the nuts, by a very interesting propensity 

 and habit with which the rook is endowed by the Great 

 Author of Nature, are plucked from the boughs just ere 

 they fall and are carried about and disseminated in all 

 directions, on clear autumnal mornings, as if in pure sport ; 

 for the birds do not seem to eat them, and the fields are 

 full of sheaves of wheat and beans at the very time. The 

 same habit prevails with these birds in Februaiy with regard 

 to the Scotch fir cones, though they seek not to get at the 

 minute seeds. The jay and squirrel pursue an industry of 

 the same kind, even with seeds that they scarcely taste. 

 Such is the wisdom of Divine Providence for the dissemina- 

 tion of trees and shrubs. 



Though thus propagating itself freely, this Asiatic tree 

 never has the mass of inflorescence with us which it pre- 

 sents in the southern counties, though quite enough to be 

 extremely ornamental. In parks, the fallen nuts are 

 picked up and enjoyed by sheep, as well as by deer ; and 

 both, too, relish the fallen leaves. But these latter, being 

 in great profusion, are also sought by the flocks and herds 

 as a dry and delicate littering whereon to lie through the 

 long, dark hours of chilling hoar frost in October and Nov- 

 ember, when they will gather under many a stately old 

 avenue at night-fall. 



R. Carr-Ellison. 



