DECIDUOUS TREES. 
333 
Fig. 105. 
soils, and attains its best proportions in such places. Loudon re¬ 
marks of the European chestnut, Castanea vesca (of which the 
American is classed as a variety only), “It will not thrive in 
stiff tenacious soil; and in a rich loam its timber, and even its 
poles and hoops, are brittle and good for nothing. In loamy soils 
at the bottom of mountains, and in loam incumbent on clay, it 
attains a large size, and in so short a time, that, according to Sang, 
wherever the chestnut is planted in its proper soil and situation, it 
will outgrow any other tree in the same length of time, except per¬ 
haps the larch, the willow, and some of the poplars. According 
to Bose it will not thrive in calcareous soil, but those lying over 
granite, gneiss, and schistus, and which are composed of the debris 
of these rocks, appear particularly suitable for it. It thrives well 
among rocks where there is apparently very little soil, insinuating 
itself among their fissures and chinks, and attaining a large size.” 
“ Wherever I have seen chestnut trees,” observes the same author, 
“ and I have seen them in a great many different localities, they 
were never on soils or on surfaces fit for the production of corn. 
On mountains in France, Switzerland, and Italy, the chestnut 
begins where the corn leaves off; and in climates suitable for 
corn, the tree is only found on rocky or flinty soils.” 
