Part 23

1. Sweet Chestnut Tree 2. Leaf Spray with Flowers 3. Stamen Flowers 4. Seed Flowers 5. 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 glossy that 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 way as 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 than they 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.

PLATE XXXI

THE HORSE CHESTNUT

The Horse Chestnut is not related in any way to the Sweet Chestnut; there is no resemblance between them except the appearance of their nuts, and even in these there are many points of difference. It is said that the name Horse Chestnut was given because the nuts of this tree were only fit for horses to eat, whereas the Sweet Chestnuts are valuable as a food for human beings. Even horses will not eat the nuts of the Horse Chestnut tree. You must not forget that if the Chestnut is spoken of without an adjective, it is the sweet Spanish Chestnut that has the right to the name, and is by far the more valuable tree.

THE HORSE CHESTNUT

1. Horse Chestnut Tree in Autumn 2. Young Leaf 3. Full-grown Leaf 4. Sticky Bud in Leaf Scar 5. Flower Spike 6. Single Flower 7. Fruit in Case]

The Horse Chestnut (1) was brought to this country five hundred years ago, and we prize it greatly for its beautiful flowers and leaves. It has a large, stout trunk, covered with a rough, scaly bark, on which you will frequently notice many green patches caused by a tiny plant which makes its home there.

The branches are large and spreading, and they sweep downwards to the ground, then rise again towards the tips, forming graceful curves. The shoots bearing the buds always point towards the sky, and in spring these shoots grow very fast for about a month, then they do not become any larger, but the shoot thickens and is soon tough and woody.

All winter the Horse Chestnut buds can be seen on the tree--large, dark, purply brown buds (4) covered with a thick coating of sticky gum. In April these buds begin to swell and the gummy covering melts. It held together twelve dark brown scales, and these fall to the ground, showing an under layer of paler scales. The growing bud inside soon pushes itself through these scales, and the young leaf appears, a delicate, pale green bud, with its leaves closely folded like a fan. They open very quickly in the warm sunshine, but for some days after they have shaken themselves loose from the scaly coverings each leaf (2) hangs on its stalk like a half-opened parasol, with all its tips pointing to the ground. But soon the leaf tips rise, and the parasol is fully opened and a beautiful leafy screen it is.

The leaf (3) is cut up into seven leaflets, and every leaflet is shaped like a pear, with the broad part pointing outwards and the narrow end joining the leaf stalk. These pear-shaped leaflets are not all the same size; there are two which are quite small and two a little larger, and the other three are larger still. The leaflets have small teeth round their edges, and there is a raised rib running up the centre, from which branches a network of fine veins all over the leaflet.

The Horse Chestnut leaves grow opposite each other in pairs, and each pair is placed cross-ways to the pair farther down on the branch, in the same way as those of the Sycamore. In July the leaves begin to change colour; they turn red and brown, and they fall very early in autumn. Look closely at the twigs and you will see on them many curious marks shaped like horse-shoes; these are the scars (4) where a leaf stalk joined the twig, and above each of these scars you can see next year’s leaf bud already distinctly formed.

In May the Horse Chestnut is in flower (5), and a wonderful sight it is; the tree is laden with snowy spikes, which look like great candles set on a bushy Christmas tree. A giant’s nosegay, it is sometimes called by the country people, this great tree, with its wealth of fan-shaped leaves and these stiff snow-white spikes rising from every branch.

The lowest flowers (6) in each spike open first, and they are called by botanists perfect flowers, because each one has all its parts complete. They have a green bell-shaped calyx with five divisions round the mouth. Within this calyx are five separate white petals, one of which is much larger than the others, and these petals have many hairs on them and are splashed with crimson and yellow stains.

In the throat of this flower there are seven stamens with curved stalks and pale salmon-coloured heads, and among these you can see a slender curved green thread rising from the seed-vessel, which lies hidden in the centre of the flower.

The upper flowers on the spike have no seed-vessel, and they fall off as soon as their stamen dust is scattered. The spike may bear thirty or forty flowers, yet only a few will remain to produce seeds after the beautiful petals are withered.

When this has happened the seed-vessel grows larger and larger till it becomes a rough, horny green ball (7) studded with short spines. It is not bristly all over like the Sweet Chestnut fruit ball, but is hard and smooth, and its spines are thick and clumsy, with a wide space between each. If you open one of these balls before the fruit is ripe, you will find a nut inside, which is white and polished like a piece of ivory and which fits the covering closely. But if you leave the fruit to ripen on the tree, then the green ball splits into three pieces, and you see that the nut (7) inside has shrunk a little and has become a rich, dark brown. It is so glossy that it looks as if it had just been oiled, and it is almost round.