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.