NURSERY AND PLANTING. 



77 



in both of those cities, as instanced by Sang, seems very 

 doubtful, and particuhivly so if this be not a native tree, wliich 

 we see Httle probabiHty of being able to confirm. It is much 

 more rational to suj^pose, with Daines Barrington, and Pro- 

 fessor Martyn, that what has been mistaken for chestnut, is 

 in reality nothing but oak of a ditlbrcnt grain ; and the old 

 pipes which are supposed to have been laid to convey the first 

 water to the metropolis, and stated to have been of this wood* 

 were, in all probability, nothing else but oak. The timber of 

 this tree is, however, truly valuable, and will stand in situ- 

 ations exposed to wet and dry, when divested of its sap-wood, 

 longer than oak ; and for gate-posts ranks in durability next 

 afler the Acacia, yew, and probably also longer than the larch. 



The following is adduced in support of its durability when 

 exposed to wet and dry, and is extracted from tiio Trans- 

 actions of the Society of Arts lor 1789. — " In or about the 

 year 1703, some gate-posts of oak, and others of chestnut, 

 were to be repaired ; they had the a})pearance of being put in 

 at the same time, but the latter were uuich more sound, inso- 

 much that some of them were adjudged good enough to remain 

 as gate-posts, and are now to be seen there (1788). Such as 

 were too small were taken up, and set as posts to fix rails to. 

 At the same time some new posts of oak were put in, there 

 not being enough of the old chestnut posts. Though these 

 were old when put in, twenty-five years ago, they are now 

 (1788) more sound than the oak posts, which were then new. 

 One side of the chestnut posts was the outside of the tree, 

 but the timber is as sound there as in any other part, which 

 would not have been the case with oak, the sap of which, 

 next the bark, soon decays. The chestnut gate-posts had 

 been put down many years before 171.5; they have, therefore, 

 probably stood the weather above half a century." 



Philips, in his History of Fruits^ informs us, that the chest- 

 nut wood has recently been successlhlly applied to the pur- 

 poses of dying and tanning, thus forming a substitute for 

 logwood and oak bark. Leather tanned by it is declared, by 

 the gentleman who made the experiment, to be superior to 

 that tanned with oak bark ; and in dying, its affinity for wool 

 is said, on the same authority, to be greater than that of either 



