CHESTNUT TREE. 101 



France lits dc pcniimncnt. It is said that a decoction 

 of the rind of this tree will dye hair of a beautiful golden 

 colour. 



The Chestnut being so beautiful a tree, would pro- 

 bably be much noticed by the Spanish poets, in whose 

 country it grows so abundantly : it is but shghtly men- 

 tioned in the poems of Garcilasso, lately produced in an 

 English di'ess, by Mr. WifFen : 



O fleet-foot Oreads of the hills ! who go 

 Chasing through chestnut groves the hart and roe. 

 Leave wounding animals, draw near and scan 

 The last convulsions of a wounded man." 



P. 217. 



Dallaway, in his Constantinople,'" speaks of its effect in 

 landscape ; in speaking of the view from Brusa, he says — 



" This yiew is peculiar and beautiful, from the sudden 

 eleyation of the back-ground, the variety of situation in 

 which the houses are clustered, and the rich verdure of 

 the Chestnut groves, and enclosures of v. hite mulberry for 

 the silk- worms, which embellish the environs for a certain 

 distance with most luxuriant vegetation."" 



The author of a popular modern novel more than 

 once adverts to the beautiful foliage of the Chestnut, 

 especially as contrasted with trees of different hues : 



" The dehcate Chestnut woods, which last dai'e en- 

 counter the blasts of spring, whose tender leaves do not 

 expand until they may become a shelter for the swallow, 

 and wliich first hear the voice of the tyrant Libeccio. as 

 he comes all cx)nquering from the west, had already 

 changed their hues, and shone yellow and red amidst the 

 sea-green foliage of the olive, the darker but light boughs 

 of the cork-trees, and the deep and heavy masses of ilexes 

 and pines."' 



