158 
F A G U S, 
fhoot up' draight to i great- height. The leaves are large, 
of a lucid green ; they end in a long very taper point, and 
the ferratures terminate in a kind of tender prickle ; they 
are about four or five inches long, and two wide, fome. 
what wrinkled, having feveral tranfverfe veins, promi¬ 
nent on the under furface, and proceeding front a flrong 
midrib. The aments or catkins of male flowers are pen¬ 
dulous at the ends of the branches, very long, and re¬ 
ferable thofe of the walnut. They have a drong fpermatic 
fmell ; the flowers are collected in remote little balls, and 
are fe(Tile. The proportion of male flowers to the females 
is prodigious. The flamens are about nine in number ; 
Haller lavs, from five to eighteen. In the female flowers 
the'number of ftyles varies from four to feven, but fix is 
the molt common. The calyx becomes an echinate cap- 
fule of four valves, of a filky fmoothnefs on the infide ; 
and containing two nuts, fomeiimes three, or only one. 
The cheflnut, in maturity and perfection, fays Mr. Gil¬ 
pin, is a noble tree, and grows not unlike the oak. its 
ramification is more draggling, but it is eafy, and its fo¬ 
liage loofe. This is the tree which graces the landscapes 
of Salvator Rofa, who painted in the mountains of Cala¬ 
bria, where it flourifhes. The cheflnut I13S long been 
naturalized to the fouthern countries of Europe. It is 
faid that Tiberius Caefar fil'd brought it from Sardis in 
Lydia to Italy, whence it was propagated into France, and 
fo among 11s. It is indigenous in many parts of Alia, in 
China, Cochin-china, Japan, &c. It abounds now in the 
mountainous parts of Italy, in the fouth of France, in 
Swilferland, in the Valais, .and many parts of the Alps 
towards Italy, in Corfica and Sicily, where it grows half¬ 
way up mount Etna; alfo in Carniola, fome parts of Ger¬ 
many, 3 cc. With us, in England, fays Miller, it was for¬ 
merly in greater plenty than at prefent, as may be proved 
by tiie old buildings in London, which were for the mod 
part of t his timber; and there are remains of old decayed 
cheftnuts in the woods , and chaces not far didant from 
London, particularly Enfield-chace. We doubt very much, 
however, whether the timber fuppofed by Mr. Miller, 
and by architects in general, to be cheflnut in our old 
buildings, be any thing more than oak of a different 
grain, and inferior quality. Mr. Evelyn makes little 
doubt but that the chednut is a free-born of this ifland. 
Dr. Ducarel i's of the fame opinion, and among the ancient 
records to which he appeals, produces a deed of gift from 
Henry II. to Flexley-abbey, of the titlie of all his cheft- 
nuts in the forell of Dean. The Hon. Daines Barrington, 
on the contrary, (Phil of. Tranf. vol. Ixi.) thinks it is not 
a native. It certainly is not in the woods north of Trent, 
and though it has been long in the fouthern parts, yet 
there is no appearance of its being indigenous. * 
This tree feems to be very long lived, and grows to a 
very great fize. The famous caftagno dc cento cavalii , on 
mount Etna, as nieaCured by Mr. Brydone, in 1770, is 
two hundred and four feet in circumference ; fome, how¬ 
ever, have doubted whether this be really one tree. Bry- 
dbiie fays, it had the appearance of five didincl trees, but 
that he was a (fared the fpace was once filled with foiid 
timber, and that there was no bark on the infide. Kircher, 
about a century before Brydone, affirms that an entire 
flock of Iheep might be commodioufly inclofed within it, 
as in a fold. The caftagno ddgalea, of which there is no 
doubt, meafured then f’eventy-lix feet round, at two feet 
from the ground. But thefe trees grow in a deep rich 
foil, formed from the afhes of the volcano. There are 
fome fine cheftnuts on the banks of the river Tamer, in 
Cornwall, at an old houfe belonging to the Edgecombe 
family ; and at Beechworth-caftle, in Surrey, there are not 
fewer than feventy or eighty trees meafuring from twelve 
to eighteen or twenty feet in girth. At Wimiey, near 
Hitchin-priory, in Hertford fibre, a cheflnut, in 17S9, girt¬ 
ed fomewhat more than fourteen yards at five feet above 
the ground ; its trunk was hollow, and in part open, but 
its vegetation was vigorous. In the park adjoining to the 
garden at Great Canford, in Dorfetlhire, are four large 
cheftnnt-trces, one of them meafuring tWrfy-feven. feet 
round, ftil! bearing fruit plentifully, though much fhi- 
vered and decayed by age. There was an old decayed 
tree at Fraiting, in Effex, wliofe very flump yielded thirty 
fizeable loads of logs; and another in Glouceflerfliire, 
containing, within its bowels a pretty wainfeotted room, 
enlightened with windows, and furnifhed with feats, See. 
Ben Jonfon, in his poem on Penfhurft, makes mention of a 
cheflnut planted at the birth of fir Philip Sidney. 
The moft remarkable of thefe trees in England is that 
atTortworth, the feat of lord Ducie, in Gloucederlhire. 
Even in the year 1150, fays Bradley, it was ftyled the great 
or old cheftnut-tree of Tortvvorth ; it fixes the boundary 
of the manor, find is probably one thoufand years oid at 
lead. It girted fifty-one feet at fix feet above the ground, 
about tite year 1720; it divided at the crown into three 
limbs, one of which then meafured twenty-eight feet and 
a half in girth, five feet above the crown. The foil in 
which the tree grows is a foft clay fomewhat loamy, and 
the fituarion on the north-weft fide of a hill. Lord Ducie 
has a beautiful painting of this ancient tree, under which 
is this iiifcription :—The eafl view of the ancient ched- 
nut-tree at Tortworth, in the county of Gloucefter, which 
meafures nineteen yards in circumference, and is mentioned 
by fir Robert Atkyns, in his hiftory of that county, as a 
famous tree in king John’s time ; and by Mr. Eyetyn, in 
his Sylva, to have been fo remarkable for its magnitude, 
in the reign of king Stephen, as then to be called the great 
cheflnut of Tortworth ; from which it may reafonably be 
prefumed to have been Handing before the conqueft.”— 
So late as the year 1788 it produced great quantities of 
fruit, which, though (mall, were fweet and well-flavoured. 
Mr. Lyfons has etched two views of this famous tree, from 
the fouth-wefl and the north-weft. He fays, that in 1791 
it meafured forty-four feet four incites round in the thickeft 
part, which is much lefs than the dimenfion given by 
Bradley, and yet this is exceeded by that of fir Robert 
Atkyns, who gives it nineteen yards. Sir Robert is of opi¬ 
nion that it was originally feveral trees ; and Mr. Marfliail 
thinks it to be two trees grown together. Sir Robert At¬ 
kyns mentions the tradition of its having been growing in 
tiie reign of king John ; and Mr. Peter Collinfon, relying 
on the accounts of Evelyn and Bradley, fuppofed it to 
have been planted in the reign of king Egbert. But Mr. 
Lyfons fays, that there does not feem to be any authority 
to (how at what period it became remarkable for its (ize, 
except a very vague tradition ; and it could never have been 
a boundary of the manor, for it (lands in the centre of it. 
The cheflnut is a tree which deferves our care as much 
as any of the trees which are propagated in this country, 
either for life or beauty ; being one of the bed forts of 
timber, and affording a goodiy flutde. The leaves con¬ 
tinue late in the autumn, turning then to a golden colour ; 
nor are they fo liable to be eaten by infects as are thofe of 
the oak, which of late years has frequently happened to 
the latter, and has rendered them very unfightly great 
part of the fummer, which has never been oblerved to be 
the cafe with the cheflnut, which renders them more va¬ 
luable for parks and plantations for ornament; and there 
is no better food for deer, and many other animals, than 
their nuts, which moft of them prefer to acorns; but yet 
there fhou'ld not be many of thefe trees planted too near 
the habitation; becaufe, when they are in flower, they 
emit a very difagreeable odour, which is oftenfive to moft 
people. The (hade alfo of the cheflnut, 'like that of the 
aft), is injurious to other plants ; it fliould therefore be 
planted in thickets, or in detached plantations. Or if 
thefe trees be planted in large witdernefs quarters next the 
walks, or in woods by the fide of the ridings, and left un¬ 
trimmed as they ought to be, they will feather to the bot¬ 
tom, and hide the naked and crooked Hems of other trees. 
To recommend the refloration ofthis noble and ufeful 
tree, which has unaccountably been in a manner loll among 
us, we mud obferve, that it may be cultivated in Eng¬ 
land fo as to afford an equal profit with any other fort of 
timber- 
