2. Chestnut-flour.—

We are indebted to Mr. D. E. Colnaghi, H.B.M.'s Consul at Florence, for specimens of the dried chestnuts, flours, and necci (the cakes made from them), which are so important an article of subsistence in the Apennines. The collection of the specimens for Kew was due to the kindness of Dr. L. Bacci, of Castigliano, in the mountains of Pistoja.

The fresh chestnuts are dried, or rather roasted, for three days and nights in a seccatoio, or drying room, on a latticed floor covering a chamber in which a fire is lighted. The husk is then easily removable, and the kernel is ready to be ground into flour, which is of a pinkish colour. This is mixed to the consistence of cream with water, and poured on fresh chestnut leaves to be baked into small circular cakes, necci, between heated stones.

The cakes were found to contain only 6.7 per cent, of proteids, with 3.4 per cent, of flour. The large amount of dextrin is due to the high temperature to which the chestnuts are subjected in the process of drying. Professor Church thinks that chestnut-flour ought to be of easy digestibility, and a suitable children's food, considering that it contains over 40 per cent, of nutritious matters soluble in pure water.