THE CHESTNUT. 3851 
Castanea vesca. At Croft Castle there are Chest- 
nuts eighty feet in height, and having a girth of 
twenty-six feet; and there is one at Tortworth, 
having, so long ago as the year 1721, a girth of 
fifty-seven feet, and it has now, at four feet from 
the ground, a circumference of sixty feet, or 
nearly seven yards in diameter, though it is 
by this time almost a ‘ sylvan ruin.’ 
The Chestnut thrives in deep sandy loam, in 
the soil, especially, of rich loamy valleys, where it 
grows with rapidity. It does not thrive in stiff 
or heavy soil, and when this is not present, the 
nature of the soil in other respects is not of very 
great importance, though it is to be noticed that 
it attains height in deep good soil, and breadth 
in shallower poorer soil. The Chestnut woods, 
with Trees of enormous growth, found on the 
sides of Mounts Etna and Vesuvius, appear to 
indicate a strong preference of this magnificent 
Tree for the ashy substances thrown out by vol- 
canic action. 
Very beautiful in its depth of glossy green 
is the Chestnut leaf as it hangs from the 
spreading Tree. It would be largely tongue- 
