THE SWEET CHESTNUT 45 
downwards at their extremities’so as sometimes 
to sweep the ground. The whole outline of an 
unpollarded tree is remarkably round-topped, even 
more than is that of the Oak; but its bright 
pendent foliage, reflecting the sunlight, prevents 
the general effect from being heavy. William 
Gilpin notices how Salvator Rosa makes use of 
this, his favourite tree, in all its forms, break- 
ing and disposing it in a thousand beautiful 
shapes, as the exigencies of his composition re- 
quired. 
The Chestnut is a valuable avenue tree. Across 
an ordinary carriage-drive the opposite trees will, 
meet in a few years, and the foliage effects will be 
pleasing during the greater part of the year—the 
long,- pointed, and sharply-toothed leaves seem to 
partake of the evergreen: character of so many of 
the trees of the south in their thickness and gloss. 
When young they are often of a beautiful red 
colour, and when mature of: a very pleasant shade 
of green, without the blue tint common to many 
grasses, and though perhaps as brown as the leaves 
of the Buckthorn, they are redeemed from dulness 
by their shining surfaces. They are very much 
the colour of the Hornbeam, or of the Beech when 
no longer young and emerald-hued though not 
yet opaque and dull. The venation is pinnate, the 
midrib giving off about twenty secondary veins on 
each side, between which is a fine meshwork of 
tertiary veins. In the bud the leaves are folded 
plicately along the secondary veins. These fine 
leaves, sometimes eight or nine inches long, are to 
