494 
PLTNT's NATUEAL UlSTOEY. 
[Book XYil. 
CHAP. 34. OTHEK PLANTS TKAT AEE CUT FOE POLES AND 
STAKES. 
The chesnut is found to produce better staj^s for the vine 
than any other tree, both from the facility with which they 
are worked, their extremely lasting qualities, and the circum- 
stance that, when cut, the tree will bud again more speedily 
than the willow^^ even. It requires a soil that is light without 
being gravelly, a moist, sandy one more particularly, or else a 
charcoal earth,'''^ or a fine tufa even ; while at the same time 
a northern aspect, however cold and shady, and if upon a 
declivity even, greatly promotes its growth. It refuses to 
grow, however, in a gravelly soil, or in red earth, chalk, or, 
indeed, any kind of fertilizing ground. We have already 
stated,'* that it is reproduced from the nut, but it will 
onl)^ grow from those of the largest size, and then only when 
they are sown in heaps of five together. The ground above 
the nuts should be kept broken from the month of ISTovember 
to February, as it is at that jjeriod that the nuts lose their 
hold and fall of themselves from the tree, and then take 
root. There ought to be intervals of a foot in width left 
between them,"^^ and the hole in which they are planted should 
be nine inches every way. At the end of two years or more 
they are transplanted from this seed plot into another, where 
they are laid out at intervals of a couple of feet. 
Layers are also employed for the reproduction of this tree, 
and there is none to which they are better adapted : the root 
of the plant is left exposed, and the layer is placed in the 
trench at full length, with the summit also protruding from 
the earth ; the result being, that it shoots from the top as well 
" Pedamenta," uprights, stays, stakes, or props. 
This is not'the fact, for the chesnut both grows and buds very slowly. 
"^2 A black, hot kind of earth. See c. 3 of this Book. 
'^^ In reality, the chesnut will not thrive in a tufaceous, or, indeed, in any 
kind of calcareous, soil. In E. xv. c. 25. 
"^^ The heaps of five in which they are sown. 
'^^ The chesnut is grown with the greatest difficulty from layers and slips, 
and never from suckers. Pliny borrows this erroneous assertion from 
Columella, B. iv. c. 32. In mentioning the heaps of five nuts, Pliny seems 
to have had some superstitious observance in view, for Columella only says 
that they must be sown thickly, to prevent accident. The same is done at 
the present day, in order to make provision for the depredations of field- 
mice, rats, and mice, which are particularly fond of them. 
