Plate XXXTHE SWEET CHESTNUT1. Sweet Chestnut Tree2. Leaf Spray with Flowers3. Stamen Flowers4. Seed Flowers5. Fruit in Case
Plate XXX
THE SWEET CHESTNUT1. Sweet Chestnut Tree2. Leaf Spray with Flowers3. Stamen Flowers4. Seed Flowers5. Fruit in Case
The Sweet Chestnut (1) is a large bushy tree with beautiful leaves, which painters love to put in the background of their pictures. The branches are heavy and spreading, and they sweep downwards. Each branch is thickly covered with long green leaves (2), which are so thick and glossythat you expect them to be evergreen. Each leaf is sharply oval, and has a stout rib running up the centre, from which straight veins branch to the very edge of the leaf, where they each end in a point. These points make the edge of the leaf look as if toothed. Insects do not destroy these Chestnut leaves, and they hang on the twigs till late in autumn, when they turn pale yellow; this yellow deepens to gold and brown, and when winter comes they cover the ground with a thick carpet of rustling leaves. These leaves are often gathered to make winter bedding for the poor people, who call them “talking beds” because they rustle and crackle so when lain on.
Those leaves that are left on the ground greatly enrich the soil.
The trunk of the Chestnut tree is scored up and down with many deep ridges, and these ridges seem to bend round the tree strangely, as if they had been twisted, like the strands of a rope, when the tree was young and tender.
The Chestnut flowers appear on this year’s shoots early in May or June, and they are of two kinds, both of which grow on the same tree. The stamen flowers (3) are in long catkin spikes, which rise stiffly among the leaves. The centre stem of the catkin is very stout, and seated round it are tufts of yellow-headed stamens, each enclosed in a green calyx. These stamen heads are filled with yellow dust, which they shed in the same wayas the Pine tree stamens, in such quantities that it lies like sulphur on any still lake or pond that may be near.
On the same catkin spike, near the foot, grow the seed flowers (4). These look like short, fat paint brushes with a stout green handle. There is a cup made up of many slender green leaf-like points, and inside this cup sit the seeds; you can see a bunch of their points standing up like the bristles of the paint brush. When plenty of the stamen dust has fallen on these bristles, the seed sets about getting ready its fruit, and the stamen part of the catkin spike shrivels and falls off; its work is done.
But the seed grows bigger and bigger, till it looks like a round green ball (5) covered all over with bristles. The seeds are ripening inside this ball, two or three, sometimes five, seeds closely packed side by side. In October the green covering splits into four pieces and the seeds fall to the ground. Notice how beautifully this bristly covering is lined with soft, silky down to protect the smooth skin of the nut.
Each nut is slightly flattened at the sides where it was tightly pressed against its neighbour, and it comes to a point at the top, where the withered remains of the seed bristles show in a dry brown tuft. The skin on the Chestnut is dark brown, and there is a large scar at the foot of the nut where it was fastened to the green cup.
In Italy, where there are miles and miles of Chestnut forests, the nuts are gathered in sackfuls when October comes. They are then spread out on a brick floor in a thick layer, and a fire, made of dry leaves and sticks, is lit beneath. This fire is kept burning for ten days, and the nuts are frequently turned with a wooden shovel. Whenever the skins crack off quite easily the nuts are ready; the hard, cracked brown skins are removed, and the nuts are ground into flour from which many delicious foods are prepared.
The fruit of the Chestnut is one of the most important tree fruits we know. In France and Italy the people use Chestnuts as much as we do potatoes, and many are the clever ways in which they prepare and cook them, but the commonest way is to boil and eat the chestnuts with a little salt. When the cook is preparing the nuts, he makes a slit in the skin of every Chestnut except one, and when that one bursts and cracks with a loud noise, he knows that the others are ready.
The Chestnut fruit ripens in the South of England, but it is never so large, nor is it so plentiful, as in the sunny South.
The wood of the Chestnut tree is valuable. For many years people believed that the great beams in some of our old historic buildings were Chestnut wood, and this made them think that the trees must have grown much larger then thanthey do to-day. But it is now decided that these old beams must be made of Oak. Old Oak beams are very like Chestnut beams, but clever people tell us that Chestnut wood is best when it is young, as the old wood is apt to break off in little pieces, and it would not really be a suitable wood to use in buildings where strength was needed.
Chestnut wood makes excellent fences and is also used for wine casks; the hoops which go round these wine casks should be made of it, as it does not rot in a damp cellar. Chestnut wood burns badly; it sends up a great many sparks, and it smoulders, but will not burn brightly.