DECIDUOUS ORNAMENTAL TREES. 
181 
“ Sunt nobis mitia poma 
Castanea molles, et pressi copia lactis.” 
Virg. Ecl. 1. 
They appear to have been in general use, both in a raw and 
cooked state. In times of scarcity, they probably supplied 
in some measure the place of bread-stuffs, and were thence 
highly valued : 
“ As for the thrice three angled beech nut shell, 
Or Chestnut’s armed huske and hid kernell, 
No squire durst touch, the law would not afford, 
Kept for the court, and for the king’s own board.” 
Bp. Hall , Sat. B. III. 1 . 
Even to this day, in those parts of France and Italy near- 
est the great chestnut forests of the Appenines, these nuts 
form a large portion of the food which sustains the peasantry, 
where grain is but little cultivated, and potatoes almost un- 
known. There a sweet and highly nutritious flour is pre- 
pared from them, which makes a delicious bread. Large 
quantities of the fruit are therefore annually collected in those 
countries, and dried and stored away for the winter’s con- 
sumption. Old Evelyn says, “the bread of the flour is ex- 
ceedingly nutritive : it is a robust food, and makes women 
well complexioned, as I have read in a good author. They 
also make fritters of chestnut flour, which they wet with 
rose-water, and sprinkle with grated parmigans, and so fry 
them in fresh butter for a delicate.” The fruit of the chest- 
nut abounds in saccharine matter ; and we learn from a 
French periodical, that experiments have been made, by 
which it is ascertained that the kernel yields nearly sixteen 
per cent, of good sugar. 
As a timber tree, this is greatly inferior to the oak, being 
