CHERVIL

a highly esteemed, low-growing, aromatic garden-herb cultivated in all temperate climates and very popular in the South, its young leaves being used for seasoning soups, etc., and in salads. It resembles parsley, the Curled being even handsomer. Parsnip Chervil, or Turnip-rooted chervil, is a South-European variety grown for its thick root, four to five inches long, its exterior grey to blackish, its flesh yellowish-white. It is a very desirable vegetable, the flesh being sweet and delicate, and almost floury. For ‘‘Sweet chervil’’ (myrrh), a misnomer, see Sweer CIcELy. CHESTNUT (see the second color-page facing 346), the seed of a tree which is. found in several varieties in different parts of the world. It develops inside a prickly husk, generally two or three in each husk, ripening with the first frost. The American chestnut is the choicest — it is usually smaller, but generally sweeter than the Muropean, or *‘Spanish.’’ The Japanese also averages larger than the American, and in sweetne may be cla ed between it and the Spanish. See also Marron. Chestnuts contain an appreciable quantity of protein, fat, and sugar to supple ment the starch which is their chief component. The sugar content frequently reaches as high as 15%, the evaporation of the juice yielding a fine granular sugar. They should be well roasted, or steamed or boiled for a long time. In mountainous districts of Europe where cereals cannot be raised, the chestnut takes the place of grain to a considerable extent. The harvest is one of the great events of the year on the slopes of the A pennines and Pyrenees—the gathering of the nuts being for three or four weeks the principal oceupation of every mountain village. When all the trees have been stripped, the nuts are spread on frames of lattice-work and dried.by a fire kept burning underneath. They are then ready for either immediate or later steaming or roasting or preparation in pudding form—the last-named, the original ‘‘polenta’’—or to be ground into meal for the thickening of soups and for bread-making. Chestnut flour is sold here also to al small circle of consumers. Chinkapin chestnuts are the fruits of American dwarf varieties--varying from shrub to tree size. The sweetne of their meat finds them a ready market. They are sinall—from three-quarters of an inch to an inch in length—and inclined to be cylindrical in shape. They are borne singly, and ripen earlier.