A Struck Chestnut
The claim of the statisticians that no chestnut tree is known to have been struck by lightning appears to have at least one exception. Mr. Noel Sutton, a botanist of a great botanical clan, sends me an account of a struck chestnut well known in Heading. The details are very interesting. On one of the recreation grounds a horse chestnut is to be seen on which the leaves of one particular branch turn colour in autumn before those on the rest of the tree ; and, more curiously, the buds on this branch usually break earlier in the spring. This bough was struck by lightning some years ago. This example, however, does not give the lie direct to the census. A wire runs from this tree to support a number of young trees which form one side of an avenue. The particular lightning stroke earthed itself down a supporting post (which it split) and not the trunk of the struck tree. It also broke the tapes which fastened the young trees to the wire.
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