cast] 



Etje Creajattrg ai 23otawjj. 



236 



dantly in 1788. In 1820 its measurement, 

 five feet from the ground, was fifty-two 

 feet in circumference, so that the diameter, 

 twelve feet, is equal to the width of a 

 moderate-sized room. But these dimen- 

 sions are small compared with the great 

 Chestnut tree on Mount. Etna, which 

 measured 204 feet in circumference. When 

 visited by M. Houel it was undergoing 

 treatment by no means favourable to its 

 prolonged existence. A house was formed 

 in the interior, in which some country 

 people were living ; and they had an oven, 

 in which, according to the custom of the 

 country, they dried chestnuts, filberts, and 

 other fruits which they wished to preserve 

 for winter use, using for fuel, when they 

 could find no other, pieces cut with a 

 liatchet from the interior of the tree. 



It has been said that the timber in the 

 roof of Westminster Abbey is Spanish 

 Chestnut : but Dr. Lindley has decided that 

 such is not the case, and that Oak, Quercus 

 sessiliflora, has been mistaken for it, in this 

 and other old buildings. The timber em- 

 ployed in the construction of the old 

 Louvre at Paris was also supposed to be 

 Chestnut, but on examination by M. Dau- 

 benton it was found to be Oak. In this 

 country, where it is certain that very fine 

 oak trees abounded in natural forests, it is 

 not likely that the Spanish Chestnut, requir- 

 ing to be reared artificially, would be much 

 employed for building purposes. The tree, 

 doubtless, had been originally introduced 

 and grown for the sake of its fruit. It is 

 now, however, cultivated for posts, hop- 

 poles, and hoops. 



The fruit is enclosed in a round spiny 

 husk, the inside of which is lined with soft 

 silky pubescence ; there are generally three 

 chestnuts in each husk, occasionally more, 

 but sometimes only one. There are many 

 varieties. Some of a very large size are 

 grown in Madeira, but they are not suited 

 for the climate of England. The same 

 remark applies to many of the French 

 varieties, with the exception of the Marron 

 cornu. The Devonshire, Prolific, and Down- 

 ton are amongst the best adapted for 

 ripening in this climate. The Downton is 

 remarkable for its short-spined husk. 

 Chestnuts, after having been well-dried in 

 the sun, may be kept amongst dry sand in 

 casks. [R. T.] 



CASTANHA DO JOBATA\ Anisosperma 

 Passijlora. 



CASTANOSPERMTTM. A genus of plants 

 so named in consequence of the supposed 

 resemblance of the seeds to the sweet 

 chestnuts of Europe. It belongs to the 

 papilionaceous section of leguminous 

 plants, and contains only one species, re- 

 markable for its large woody long-stalked 

 pods. This plant, C. australe, is a native 

 of Moreton Bay, in Queensland, Australia, 

 where it forms a tree forty or fifty feet in 

 height. Its leaves are about a foot in 

 length, pinnate, with an odd leaflet, the 

 leaflets being smooth and of an elliptical 

 form. Its pea-like flowers are produced in 

 racemes, and are of a bright yellow colour : 



they have a two-lipped, short-tubed calyx, 

 the upper lip having two, and the lower 

 one three, divisions, and ten free stamens. 

 The fruit is a pendulous cylindrical pod, of 

 a bright brown colour, six or eight inches 

 long, and tapering to both ends : it gener- 

 ally contains four seeds, which are rather 

 larger than chestnuts, and of a roundish 

 shape, but flattened on one side. The con 

 tment of Australia is remarkable for the 

 paucity and inferior quality of its indige- 

 nous fruits or other esculents, the so- 

 called apples and pears of the colonists 

 being hard, woody, uneatable productions ; 

 and the seeds of this tree, called Moreton 

 Bay Chestnuts, are no exception to the 

 rule, for, although they have been extolled, 

 and placed upon an equality with our 

 chestnuts, they are in reality not much 

 superior to acorns, and have an astringent 

 taste : they are improved by roasting, and 

 no doubt proved acceptable to the travellers 

 who first visited Moreton Bay. [A. S.] 



CASTELA. A genus of tropical shrubs, 

 belonging to the Simarubacece, having foli- 

 age like that of the olive, and small uni- 

 sexual flowers arranged in axillary tufts. 

 The male flowers have eight stamens, in- 

 serted beneath the margin of a fleshy 

 eight-lobed disc, those opposite the petals 

 shorter than the rest : the filaments ad- 

 herent at their base internally to small 

 hairy scales. The female flowers have four 

 ovaries, on a short stalk; the four styles 

 are detached at their origin, but are joined 

 together in the middle for a short distance, 

 and then again detached and recurved. 

 The fruit consists of four fleshy bitter 

 drupes. [M. T. MJ 



CASTELNAVIA. One of several genera 

 of most curious Brazilian plants, looking 

 like mosses or Hepaticce, belonging to the 

 order Podostemacew, and which have been 

 described with the greatest care and ability 

 by M. Tulasne. The present genus consists 

 of plants growing in the rapids, possessing 

 no true leaves but a leaf-like stem or frond, 

 dividing into forked lobes, and cut up at 

 the margins into fringe-like segments. 

 The flowers are either immersed in the 

 substance of the frond, or placed on its 

 margins. Some kinds have linear creeping 

 branched stems, bearing afew linear leaves. 

 The flowers have no calyx or corolla, but a 

 tubular spathe or involucre divided at its 

 margins into several thick thread-like seg- 

 ments ; the stamens are two, slightly 

 united one to the other; the fruit consists 

 of a one-celled capsule, with two very un- 

 equal valves, surmounted by very long 

 stigmas. [M. T. MJ 



CASTILLEJA. A genus of Scrophida- 

 riacece, natives of America and Asia, con- 

 taining about forty species of herbaceous 

 plants, with alternate entire or cut-lobed 

 leaves. The pale yellow or purplish flowers 

 are in terminal spikes, with large coloured 

 bracts usually more showy than the flowers. 

 The calyx is tubular, flattened, cleft on 

 the anterior side, and usually on the pos- 

 terior also ; the divisions are entire or 



