tnut harvest is the event of
the year. The Italian Chestnut-cakes, called _necci_, contain forty
per cent. of nutritious matter soluble in cold water; and Chestnut
flour, when properly prepared, is a capital food for children.

To be harvested the Chestnuts are spread on a frame of lattice-work
overhead, and a fire is kept burning underneath. When dry the
fruit is boiled, or steamed, or roasted, or ground into a kind of
flour, with which puddings are made, or an excellent kind of bread
is produced. The ripe Chestnut possesses a fine creamy flavour,
and when roasted it becomes almost aromatic. A good way to cook
Chestnuts is to boil them for twenty minutes, and then place them
for five minutes more in a Dutch oven.

It was about the fruit of the Spanish tree Shakespeare [105] said:
"A woman's tongue gives not half so great a blow to the ear as will
a Chestnut in a farmer's fire." In the United States of America an
old time-worn story, or oft repeated tale, is called in banter a
"Chestnut," and a stale joker is told "not to rattle the Chestnuts."

For convalescents, after a long serious illness, the French make a
chocolate of sweet Chestnuts, which is highly restorative. The nuts
are first cooked in _eau de vie_ until their shells and the pellicle
of the kernels can be peeled off; then they are beaten into a pulp
together with sufficient milk and sugar, with some cinnamon
added. The mixture is afterwards boiled with more milk, and
frothed up in a chocolate pot.

CHICKWEED.

Chickweed--called _Alsine_ or _Stellaria media_, a floral star of
middle magnitude--belongs to the Clove-pink order of plants, and,
despite the most severe weather, grows with us all the year round,
in waste places by the roadsides, and as a garden weed. It is easily
known by its fresh-looking, juicy, verdant little leaves, and by its
tiny white star-like flowers; also by a line of small stiff hairs,
which runs up one side of the stalk like a vegetable hog-mane, and
when it reaches a pair of leaves immediately shifts its position, and
runs up higher on the opposite side.

The fact of our finding Chickweed (and Groundsel) in England, as
well as on the mainland of Europe, affords a proof that Britain,
when repeopled after the great Ice age, must have been united
somewhere to the continent; and its having lasted from earliest
times throughout Europe, North America, and Siberia, seems to
show that this modest plant must be possessed of some uni