48 FAMILIAR TREES 
percentage of starch and so little oil or fat that 
they might fairly be classified among farinaceous 
bread-stuffs. The tough, leathery “ pericarp,” or 
outer. skin of the fruit, resembles the “testa,” 
or outer skin of the seed, in the Horse-chestnut, 
but differs from it in terminating in a point, where 
the remains of perianth and stigmas can often be 
detected. Removing the woolly coats of the seed, 
we find the edible cotyledons. or seed-leaves which 
are considerably crumpled. 
The timber of the Chestnut resembles Oak, 
being brown, moderately hard, fine-grained, and 
rather porous; but, being of slower growth, its 
rings are narrower ; the “medullary rays” are not 
traceable, nor is there any distinction between the 
heart-wood and the sap-wood. Our photo-micro- 
graph shows the marked contrast in each annual 
ring between the Jarge vessels of the spring wood 
and the smaller ones formed later. It was for- 
merly supposed that the roof of Westminster Hall 
and other old woodwork in London was of this 
timber, a fact which would have been an argu- 
ment for the antiquity of the growth of the Chest- 
nut in England; but upon examination these 
buildings have proved to be of Oak. Beyond the 
use of its saplings as Hop-poles, Chestnut timber 
is applied to no special purpose; but, growing as 
it will even in poor, sandy soil, or under the shade 
of Fir-trees, it is a good deal planted as cover for 
game, — 
