DECIDUOUS ORNAMENTAL TREES. 
177 
away for the winter’s consumption. Old Evelyn says, 
“the bread of the flour is exceedingly nutritive : it is a 
robust food, and makes women well complexioned, as 1 
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 chestnut 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 pei 
cent, of good sugar. 
As a timber tree, this is greatly inferior to the oak, being 
looser grained, and more liable to decay ; and the 
American wood is more open to this objection than that 
produced on the opposite side of the Atlantic. It is, 
however, in general use among us, for posts and rails in 
fencing ; and when the former are charred, they are found 
to be quite durable. 
The finest natural situations for this tree appear to be 
the mountainous slopes of mild climates, where it attains 
the greatest possible perfection. Michaux informs us, that 
the most superb and lofty chestnuts in America are to be 
found in such situations, in the forests of the Carolinas. 
Abroad, every one will call to mind the far-famed chestnuts 
of Mount Etna, of wonderful age and extraordinary size. 
The great chestnut there, has excited the surprise of 
numerous travellers ; at present, however, it appears to be 
scarcely more than a mere shell, the wreck of former 
greatness. When visited by M. Houel (. Arboretum Brit .), 
it was in a state of decay, having lost the greater part of 
its branches, and its trunk was quite hollow. A house was 
erected in the interior, and some country people resided in 
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