63 
MA-PE, OR CIIESNUT. 
occasioned with the fruit of the ma-pe or rata, 
a native chesnut, tuscarpus edulis. Like other 
chesnut-trees, the ma-pe is of stately growth and 
splendid foliage. It is occasionally seen in the 
high grounds* but flourishes only in the rich 
bottoms of the valleys, and seldom appears in 
greater perfection than on the margin of a stream. 
From the top of a mountain I have often been able 
to mark the course of a river by the winding and 
almost unbroken line of chesnuts, that have 
towered in majesty above the trees of humbler 
growth. The ma-pe is branching, but the trunk, 
which is the most singular part of it, usually rises 
ten or twelve feet without a branch, after which 
the arms are large and spreading. 
During the first seven or eight years of its 
growth, the stem is tolerably round, but after that 
period, as it enlarges, instead of continuing cylin¬ 
drical, it assumes a different shape. In four or 
five places round the trunk, small projections 
appear, extending in nearly straight lines from the 
root to the branches. The centre of the tree 
seems to remain stationary; wdiile these projec¬ 
tions increasing, at length seem like so many 
planks covered with bark, forming a number of 
natural buttresses round the tree. The centre of 
the tree often continues many years with per¬ 
haps not more than two or three inches of wood 
round the medula, or pith ; while the buttresses, 
though only about two inches thick, extend two, 
three, and four feet, being widest at the bottom. 
I have observed buttresses, not more than two 
inches in thickness, projecting four feet from the 
tree, and forming between each, natural recesses, 
in which I have often taken shelter during a 
shower. When the tree becomes old, its form 
