CHAP. CV. CORYLA^CEiE. CASTA'nEA. 1999 



the trunk averaged from 9 in. to 1 ft. in diameter, and then to use it as gate- 

 posts, or posts for supporting shed roofs. As coppice-wood, the common 

 period at which it is felled is about every 16 years ; though in some places, as 

 about Maidstone, in Kent, the poles are cut every 12 years, and even every 

 10 years. For hoops, they may be cut every 4 or 5 years. 



Accidents, Diseases, tyc. The timber of the chestnut being brittle, and the 

 branches spreading obliquely from the trunk, it is much more liable to be 

 injured by storms than either the beech or the oak. The wood is also subject 

 to become shaky, and cup-shaky in the interior (see p. 1992.) ; and to that 



f>eculiar disease, already mentioned (p. 1991.), which the French call dial- 

 ing. The decay of the heart wood is also technically considered a disease 

 named caries ; and Chaptal informs us that, when he was travelling in dif- 

 ferent parts of France, and particularly in Cevennes, in the department of 

 Allier, he observed a great number of chestnut trees with their trunks quite 

 hollow, and charred over the whole of their interior surface. The inhabitants 

 of the country explained to him that this operation was necessary to check 

 the progress of the caries, or decay, which would otherwise speedily consume 

 the entire tree. Hence, when they observe the disease beginning to spread, 

 they cut the whole of the rotten wood out of the trunk, and then collect 

 heath and other combustible plants, which, when thoroughly dry, they burn 

 in the hollow of the tree, till the whole surface of the interior is completely 

 charred. This is found effectually to stop the progress of the disease ; and 

 the operation is performed so dexterously, that it is very rare to find a tree 

 destroyed by it. (Bulletin des Sciences, an 7, as quoted in N. Du Ham., torn. iii. 

 p. 79.) The leaves are liable to be attacked by few or no insects; and it is 

 said that the wood never becomes worm-eaten. The nuts, however, in some 

 seasons, are attacked by a kind of weevil, the Pyrale Pflugione of Fab. (see 

 Mem. de Rcaum., torn. ii. pi. 1 1. No. 19.), which is in its imago state when the 

 chestnut trees are in flower. To prevent it from depositing its eggs in the 

 incipient fruit, the inhabitants of Cevennes, where it is most common, make 

 fires to attract and burn the insect. When the germ of the fruit has been 

 pierced, the nut never attains its full size, but drops off before it is half ripe. 

 Sometimes these weevils are found in the perfectly ripe fruit ; and care must 

 be taken, in selecting chestnuts for seed, to observe whether they have been 

 pierced on the side. We have twice had chestnuts sent to us for seed from 

 the celebrated tree at Vermont, planted by the hands of Washington ; but in 

 both cases they had been pierced by some insect, and never vegetated. 



Statistics. Recorded Trees. The Tortworth Chestnut has been already mentioned. Lord Ducie, 

 the proprietor of the estate on which it stands, had a portrait taken of it, from which an etching 

 was made in 1772 ; and under it is the following inscription : — " The east view of the ancient 

 chestnut tree at Tortworth, in the county of Gloucester, which measures 19 yards in circumference, 

 and is mentioned by Sir Robert Atkins, in his History of that county, as a famous tree in King John's 

 time; and by Mr. Evelyn, in his Sylva, to have been so remarkable for its magnitude in the reign of 

 King Stephen (1135), as then to be called the Great Chestnut of Tortworth; from which it may 

 reasonably be presumed to have been standing before the Conquest (1066)." (Mart. Mill.) At the time 

 this etching was made, it appears that the tree was barely included within the garden wall, which 

 bore hard upon it ; but this wall has since been removed, and a top dressing of fresh soil applied to 

 the roots, which seems to have invigorated the tree. The native soil in which it grows is a soft clay, 

 somewhat loamy ; and the situation is on the north-west side of a hill. Sir Robert Atkins is of 

 opinion that it was originally several trees; and Marshall thinks that it is two trees grown together. 

 In 1791, Mr. Lysons found it 44 ft. 4 in. round in the thickest part; which is considerably less than 

 the dimensions given by Sir Robert Atkins, who makes it 19 yards (57 f t ) ; or by Bradley, who 

 makes it 51 ft. at 6 ft. above the ground. An engraving of this tree by Strutt will be found in his 

 Sylna Britannica, of which our fig. 1924. in p. 1988. is a copy, reduced to the scale of 1 in. to 12 ft. Its 

 present measurement, at 5 ft. from the ground, Mr. Strutt observes, writing in 1820, is 52 ft. ; which 

 shows an increase of 2 ft. since 1766, when, at the same height, it measured only 50 ft. " The body is 

 10 ft. in height to the fork, where it divides into three limbs ; one of which, at the period already men- 

 tioned, measured 28 ft. 6 in. in girt, at the distance of 50 ft. from the main trunk. The solid co'ntents 

 of the tree, according to the customary method of measuring timber, are 1965 ft. ; but its true geome- 

 trical contents must be much more. Young trees have been raised from the nuts which it bore about 

 3 years ago." {Sy/v. Brit., p. 85.) Lord Ducie informs us, in a letter dated 1836, that the tree is still 

 much in the same state as it was when drawn by Mr. Strutt ; and the Rev. W. T. Bree, who saw it 

 in the September of that year, characterises it as "a fine and most interesting relic. I wish'„ 

 he continues, "that Strutt had given us a figure of the whole tree, instead of the lower part only"; 

 for, though the perfect head is but a modicum, or perhaps no part at all, of the original head, it yet 

 makes a beautiful object altogether." In the park at Cobham, in Kent, is a chestnut, called the 

 Four Sisters, figured by Strutt; the remains, as he states, "of a most magnificent tree. (See 

 our fig. 1925. in p. 1989.) Its trunk is 35 ft. 2 in. in circumference at the ground, avoiding the 

 spurs ; 29ft. at 3 ft. from the ground, 33 ft. at 12ft. from the ground, and 40ft. at the point where 



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