Imatges de pàgina
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“Our swine do not perhaps often feed on Chestnuts now, though those of British growth are still at their mercy sometimes; but more frequently of deer. Ben Jonson speaks of

'A chestnut, whilk hath larded many a swine.'

"The best tables in France and Italy make them a service, eating them with salt, in wine or juice of lemon and sugar, being first roasted in the embers; and doubtless we might propagate their use among our common people, being a food so cheap and so lasting. In Italy they boil them in wine, and then smoke them a little; these they call anseri or geese, I know not why: those of Piedmont add fennel and nutmeg to their wine, but first they peel them. Others macerate them in rosewater. Bread of the flour is exceedingly nutritive; it is a robust food, and makes women well-complexioned, as I have read in a good author. They also make fritters of Chestnut flour, which they wet with rose-water, and sprinkle with grated parmigiano, and so fry them in fresh butter for a delicate. How we here use Chestnuts, in stewed meats and beatille pies, our French cooks teach us; and this is in truth their very best use, and

very commendable."

Thunberg tells us, that at the Cape of Good Hope they are eaten by way of dessert, roasted with butter*.

Eaten raw, or in bread, they are not considered very easy of digestion. The best way to preserve them is in earthen vessels, in a cold place, or in dry sand.

The leaves are a good litter for cattle, and make good mattresses to lie on ; but they make a crackling noise when a person turns upon them, whence they are called in

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France lits de parliament. It is said that a decoction of the rind of this tree will dye hair of a beautiful golden colour.

The Chestnut being so beautiful a tree, would probably be much noticed by the Spanish poets, in whose country it grows so abundantly: it is but slightly mentioned in the poems of Garcilasso, lately produced in an English dress, by Mr. Wiffen:

"O fleet-foot Oreads of the hills! who go

Chasing through chestnut groves the hart and roe,

Leave wounding animals, draw near and scan

The last convulsions of a wounded man."

P. 217.

Dallaway, in his "Constantinople," speaks of its effect in landscape; in speaking of the view from Brusa, he says

"This view is peculiar and beautiful, from the sudden elevation of the back-ground, the variety of situation in which the houses are clustered, and the rich verdure of the Chestnut groves, and enclosures of white mulberry for the silk-worms, which embellish the environs for a certain distance with most luxuriant vegetation."

The author of a popular modern novel more than once adverts to the beautiful foliage of the Chestnut, especially as contrasted with trees of different hues :

"The delicate Chestnut woods, which last dare encounter the blasts of spring, whose tender leaves do not expand until they may become a shelter for the swallow, and which first hear the voice of the tyrant Libeccio, as he comes all conquering from the west, had already changed their hues, and shone yellow and red amidst the sea-green foliage of the olive, the darker but light boughs of the cork-trees, and the deep and heavy masses of ilexes and pines."

Chestnuts are mostly grafted, when cultivated for the sake of their fruit. There is a passage on this subject in Virgil, which has occasioned much dispute among the learned :

"Et steriles platani malos gessere valentes ;

Castaneæ fagus, ornusque incanuit albo
Flore piri."

Georg. ii.

Some suppose this passage to signify that the beech has been grafted on the Chestnut: others considering it an absurdity to graft a tree upon one of superior value, read it differently, and believe it to mean, that the Chestnut was grafted on the beech. Upon which Martyn observes, that he sees no reason to reject the first, which is the common reading, since the fruit of the Chestnut-tree was very little esteemed in Virgil's time. Pliny wonders that nature should take such care of them as to defend them with a prickly husk, whereas the mast of the beech was reckoned a sweet nut; and men are said to have been sustained by it on a siege. The tree itself, too, was held in high veneration, and vessels made of it were used in the Roman sacrifices*.

In another passage the Roman poet alludes to its lofty growth. In speaking of the different manner in which trees are raised, he says

"Pars autem posito surgunt de semine: ut altæ
Castaneæ, nemorumque Jovi quæ maxima frondet
Esculus-"

Georgic ii.

"Some are produced by seeds; as the lofty chestnuts, and the esculus, which has the largest leaves of all the groves of Jupiter." MARTYN'S Translation.

See Martyn's Virgil.

Roasted Chestnuts formerly accompanied the wassailbowl in the celebration of Christmas festivals.

"Remember us in cups full crowned,

And let our city health go round,

Quite through the young maids and the men,

To the ninth number, if not ten;

Until the fired chestnuts leap

For joy to see the fruits ye reap

From the plump chalice, and the cup

That tempts till it be tossed up."

HERRICK.

Milton, writing on the death of his friend Deodati,

says

"In whom shall I confide? whose counsel find
A balmy medicine for my troubled mind?
Or whose discourse, with innocent delight
Shall fill me now, and cheat the wintry night—
While hisses on my hearth the pulpy pear,
And blackening chestnuts start and crackle there,
While storms abroad the dreary meadows whelm,
And the wind thunders through the neighbouring elm ?"

CORNEL TREE.

CORNUS.

CAPRIFOLIACEE.

TETRANDRIA MONOGYNIA.

Cornus, from cornu, a horn, on account of the horny hardness of the fruit: it is familiarly called Cornel-tree, and Dogwood-tree.French, cornouiller; Italian, corniolo, the fruit cornole.

THE Cornus mascula, or male Cornel, familiarly called the Cornelian Cherry, in its wild state seldom exceeds five feet in stature; but when cultivated, will grow as high as eighteen or twenty feet. It has yellow blossoms, which appear before the leaves, growing in umbels. The leaves grow opposite in pairs; the fruit is of the size and form of a small olive, and of a bright scarlet colour; but the greater part of the flowers drop off without producing fruit.

In mild seasons, the blossoms will begin to open early in February; they are not handsome, but as they appear early, are abundant, and produce a handsome fruit, the tree deserves a place in the shrubbery. Formerly it was cultivated for the use of its fruit, which was used for tarts, and kept in the form of a conserve in the apothecaries' shops. The preserved and pickled cherries," says Evelyn," are most refreshing, an excellent condiment, and do also well in tarts." He likewise observes, that the wood is much commended for its durableness in wheel work, for pins and wedges, &c. in which it exceeds the hardest iron; and relates what he very justly terms an odd notion of another author: "Though Matthiolus

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