= 
| called anticor. 
CHEST. 
ists, and most of these have been introduced to 
Britain; but all are devoid of interest.—A bien- 
nial species of the carrot genus, Daucus gingidi- 
um, is also popularly called chervil. 
CHERVIL (Roven). See Anruriscvs, 
CHESNUT. See Cuustnut-TREE. 
CHESSEL. See CuEnsz-Var. 
CHEST. The large bony cavity of the upper 
part of an animal’s body, formed by the back- 
bone, the ribs, and the breast-bone, and contain- 
ing the heart, the lungs, and some other organs. 
—A chest is also any kind of box for household 
or permanent use. 
CHEST-FOUNDER. A disease in the pecto- 
ral muscles of horses. It indicates itself by such 
stiffness in moving as cannot be referable to the 
feet; it consists in inflammatory action, swell- 
ing, sensitiveness to the touch, and sometimes 
considerable fever; it seems to be occasioned by 
exposure to cold, riding against a very cold wind, 
too much confinement to the stable, or the im- 
proper treatment of inflammation between the 
_ ribs; and it is closely akin, both in its pathology 
and in its method of cure, to the chest-disease 
See the article Anticon. The 
proper internal remedies are attenuants, soft 
pectorals, gentle purges, and bleeding ; and the 
best external appliances are rowelling, warm em- 
brocations, warm clothing, and comfortable sta- 
bling. 
CHESTNUT. See Cuxsryut-TREEr. 
CHESTNUT (Horse). See Aiscuus. 
CHESTNUT-HORSE. A horse principally 
or wholly of a chestnut colour. This colour in 
| horses is usually reckoned an original or simple 
one; yet it comprises several varieties of tint, 
| from light to dark,—each prevailing tint fre- 
quently comprises two or more shades,—and 
some of the tints are sometimes extensively super- 
seded by markings of white. In a tint of several 
shades, the individual hairs, rather than spots 
or parts, exhibit the existing diversity ; and in 
tints intermediate between bright and very dark, 
the hairs appear as if gilded toward their points, 
and in consequence produce an aggregate effect of 
the nature of lustrous brilliance. In many coarse- 
bred, light-coloured chestnut horses, the whole 
face is white ; and in a large proportion of all kinds 
of light chestnut horses, the legs, feet, tail, and 
mane are much marked with white. Whiteness 
in the feet in any chestnuts is reckoned a defor- 
mity; and whiteness in the tail or in the mane 
is reckoned an eminent beauty. Dark-coloured 
chestnut horses are often quite uniform in colour, 
and, as a class, are much more free from mark- 
ings than the light-coloured. Dark chestnuts 
have, in many instances, a fiery temperament, 
and in general are more subject to contraction in 
the feet than any other kind of horses; and light 
chestnuts, in a considerable proportion of in- 
stances, have less than an average strength of 
constitution. 
CHESTNUT-TREE,—hotanically Castanea. A 
ane | 
CHESTNUT-TREE. 193 
genus of fruit, ornamental, and timber trees, of 
the amentaceous tribe. The common species, 
sweet chestnut or Spanish chestnut, Castanea 
vesca — formerly called Fagus castanea — grows 
wild in the woods of England, and of several 
other countries of Europe. The fact of its being 
indigenous in England has frequently been ques- 
tioned ; but seems to be placed beyond all rea- 
sonable doubt by the comparatively abundant 
occurrence of it in the roofing of very old houses. 
Had not the chestnut-tree grown wild and 
plentifully in England ten or twelve centuries 
ago, its timber must have been imported in 
such profusion as could not have failed to be 
noticed in history, and at so extravagant a price 
as must have proved its importers to be both 
surpassingly foolish and lavishly rich. In. open 
situations, it throws out large spreading arms, 
and forms a magnificently strong-featured out- 
line; and in close or somewhat crowded situa- 
tions, it soars aloft with a stem as clean and 
straight as an arrow, to a great height. “The 
Spanish chestnut,” remarks Sir Thomas Dick 
Lauder, “is perhaps the noblest tree in our Span- 
ish sylva. In all countries, as well as in this, it 
has exceeded the oak both in height and magni- 
tude; and certainly it is not a whit behind that 
recognised ‘monarch of our woods.’” If not the 
noblest of our forest trees, it at least belongs to 
the first rank; and when planted on suitable 
soil in a proper situation, and with a due atten- 
tion to grouping and exterior effect, it is a most 
picturesque object, and contributes a powerful 
element to the beauties of the park, or the 
achievements of landscape-gardening. Its mean 
height, in quite ordinary circumstances, is not | 
less than about 50 feet. Its leaves are long, 
rather large, strongly marked with nerves, and 
of a dark and somewhat glossy appearance in 
summer, but change to a yellow hue in autumn. 
@s male flower has a naked amentum, a naked | 
calyx, . n&a five-petalled corolla, and appears in 
May’: ay June; and its female flower has a mu- | 
ricate, five or six leaved calyx, and no corolla. 
Its seeds or nuts are ovate, and three-sided; and | 
every three of them are enclosed in a roundish | 
capsule, covered with soft spines. 
A numerous and good specimen of the Spanish | 
chestnut as grown in Britain, occurs in asomewhat 
long avenue at Aberuchill Castle, in Strathearn, in | 
Perthshire. Trees of it flank both sides of this | 
avenue; and all are of large size and fine appear- 
ance, averaging from 10 to 12 feet in girth, and | 
from 50 to 60 feet in height. Remarkably fine 
specimens occur on the banks of the Tamer in 
Cornwall, on the estate of Buckland, and in several 
places in Kent. The largest and oldest Spanish 
chestnut known in Britain is one in Lord Ducie’s 
park at Totworth, in Gloucestershire: this tree 
is said by Bradley to have been styled, in 1150, 
the great chestnut of Totworth, and by the his- 
torian of Gloucestershire to have been tradition- 
ally reported as older than the reign of King 
