116 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
time of King Stephen, 1135, as "the great chestnut," it is supposed 
to have been growing upwards of 1000 years. Spanish chestnut 
wood is much esteemed for its durability. In the mountainous 
districts of Italy, &c, its nuts are an important article of food. 
Ulmus suberosa, common Elm, doubtfully wild as a tree in 
England, is locally common only as a hedgerow bush. 
Fagus sylvatica, common Beech, common, has probably become 
naturalized. Beech-bark is very thin and tough, and when taken 
off in large sheets is used for making baskets, bandboxes, &c. 
The wood is close-grained and brittle, and chiefly used by turners 
for making wooden handles, planes, &c. The nuts, which have 
the name of beech-mast, abound in sweet oil, and were used by 
the ancients for food. The beech tree shelters and its shade is the 
favourite locality of two edible fungi — the morel and common truffle. 
The high price of and constant demand for truffles in Erance and 
other countries makes truffle-hunting a profitable employment there. 
That very useful tree — the Larch, Larix Europcea, is not a 
British native, although it has been introduced into this country 
for 250 years, and endures well the climate here and in England 
generally. 
Corylus Avellana, common Hazel, is a thorough native, and very 
common. Its wood serves for hurdles, crates, &c. Its nut is sold 
in the streets during the nutting season boys know so well. 
The grey Poplar, the white Poplar, the black Poplar are absent 
from the Plymouth Flora ; but we have a few specimens of the 
Aspen tree, Populus tremula. Its wood is soft and light, and one 
of the best kinds of fuel for heating ovens, though not pleasant 
in open fires. Want of time prevents any allusion to the Lime, 
common Holly, the Sycamore, Maple, Ash, and Spindle trees. 
The Walnut is not indigenous in Britain. 
Leaving trees, let us now refer to the common Hop, Humulus 
lupulus. Mr. Briggs speaks of this as a native though only a 
denizen, looking " as if indigenous in some of our warm sheltered 
vales and low-lying hedges, especially between St. John's and 
Millbrook ; in the valley between Boxhill and Ham ; in the Yealm 
valley, and near Flete. When planted in congenial soil it spreads 
rapidly, and is, I have no doubt, only an introduction at by far the 
larger number of its stations." Still he marks it as common, 
enumerating no less than sixty places, within twelve miles of 
Plymouth, where it grows wild. Now it is not much more 
