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.