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looked like mighty trees, though not over 70 feet in height. It still fruits freely, and bears on its branches several bunches of the southern species’ of mistletoe. Besides this great tree, there are four other enormous trees on Mount Etna, mentioned by Parlatore and Tornabene, viz. the Castagno della Nave, 22 metres in girth; the C. della Navota, 18.7 metres; and the two C. di Santa Agata, 22.6 and 26.3 metres, all sound and much more beautiful than the C. di Cento Cavalli.
The chestnut forms a part of the forests in the south of Germany, but is not indigenous, being introduced, it is supposed, by the Romans, as in Alsace, where it forms large woods, ascending to 2000 feet, on the slopes of the Vosges, and in the plain, as around Sulzmatt and Rohrbach. Along the foot of the Vosges.in Alsace, chestnut coppice, treated on a fifteen years’ rotation, is very common, the wood being used for vine-props. The chestnut is cultivated largely in southern Germany as a fruit tree, and as an ornamental tree in parts of north Germany, where in favourable situations, as near Brunswick and at Blankenburg, it ripens its fruit perfectly.
It is planted in southern Sweden and on the coast of Norway between Christiania and Christiansand, and occasionally ripens its fruit. According to Schiibeler, it exists in Norway as a bush as far north on the coast as lat. 63°.
In Austria it is commonly planted, as in Bohemia and Moravia, while farther south it is supposed to be often wild. There is a remarkable wood of chestnut, on the domain of Mokritz in lower Carniola, which lies between 500 and 1500 feet elevation. In Carinthia, the chestnut constitutes 10 per cent of the mixed forest on the Neuhaus estate, ascending to 1800 feet; and at Bleiburg it is still a fine tree at 3100 feet elevation.
On the eastern side of the Adriatic,? from Fiume to Castelnuova, the chestnut forms a part of the forest, which is composed mainly of oak and laurel; while in the interior it is a considerable element in the oak forests of western Bosnia and Croatia. It occurs also mixed with the beech in Croatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Montenegro. Wilkomm speaks of grand woods of chestnut in southern Hungary, Slavonia, Croatia, and Dalmatia; and mentions large wild forests in the Etsch valley in the Tyrol. Velenovsky® states that in the western Balkans, not far from the toyn of Berkovitza, there are extensive woods of chestnut, which are apparently wild, and have an undergrowth of the common hazel. Elsewhere in Bulgaria the chestnut appears to be planted, and is not a common tree.
The chestnut‘ is very common in the mountains of Greece, and is met with also in the islands of Keos, Naxos, and Crete. It occurs either solitary or gregariously, and in some parts of the mountains forms extensive woods.
In Macedonia,’ Thrace, Albania, and Bithynia, the chestnut often forms the lower border of the deciduous forest, at 1200 to 3000 feet, occurring above the region of ever- green shrubs ; but here and there it descends to sea-level. Chestnut woods occur on Olympus, in the peninsula of Mount Athos, and on Mount Kortiach near Salonica.
1 This appears to be, judging from an imperfect specimen kindly sent by Mr. Druce, Viscum laxum, Boissier et Reuter. Cf. Nyman, Consp. Fl. Europ, i. 320 (1878).
2 Cf. Beck von Mannagetta, Veg. Verh. Illyrischen Ländern, 147, etc. (1901).
3 Flora Bulgarica, Suppl. i. 254 (1898).
4 Halacsy, Consp. Fl. Græcæ, iii, 125 (1904).
5 Grisebach, Fl. Rumelica, i. 339 (1843).