This tree, _Fagus Castanea_, Linn. is very abundant in New-England and the middle states; and occurs in the mountainous districts, as far southward as South-Carolina, or perhaps even Georgia. It is one of the stateliest trees of the forest; scarcely less distinguished by the beauty of its foliage, than by the durability of its wood. By repeated analyses, conducted with the minutest attention to every circumstance which could ensure accuracy, it appears, incredible as it may seem, that the chesnut _wood_ contains twice as much tannin as ross'd[45] _oak bark_, and six-sevenths as much colouring matter (which gives a black with iron,) as logwood. I am aware that nothing could be farther from the common apprehension than such results; but the uniform success of a great variety of experiments in tanning and dying, in addition to the other kind of evidence, should satisfy the most incredulous. The leather tanned with it, has, in every instance, been superior to that tanned in a comparative experiment, with oak bark; being firmer, less porous, and at the same time more pliable. The reason for this difference, will probably be found in the _high state of oxygenizement_ of the bark, particularly of the epidermis, by which it is rendered to a certain degree acrid and corrosive. Dr. Bancroft was perhaps the first who noticed the oxygenizement of barks. He attributes the dark brown colour of the epidermis of _his_ quercitron, to this cause; and as a confirmation of the idea, I have observed that ink made of the epidermis of another kind of bark, though at first not to be distinguished by the colour from that made of the cellular and cortical parts, is incomparably less permanent. As a material for making ink, the wood of the chesnut is probably unrivalled. Combined with iron in any proportion, it gives, as it is dilute or concentrated, a pure blue or blue-black; while galls, sumach, &c. &c. unless combined with a greater proportion than is consistent with the highest degree of permanency, afford a _black_ more or less inclining to a reddish brown. The lake of the chesnut is indeed a blue, and not to be distinguished by the eye from indigo; but when diffused on paper, this same substance becomes an intense shining black. In dying, little difference is observable between the chesnut and galls, and sumach, except that the former has a rather greater affinity for wool, &c. than the latter, and of course requires less boiling. Its permanency has been completely tested by long exposure to the sun and the weather; but no doubt can exist on this head, if the position of Berthollet be true, that permanent blacks are formed only by the combination of iron and tannin.