HORSE CHESTNUT TEEES IN SCOTLAND. 185 



The horse chestnut appears to have been introduced into 

 Europe from the northern parts of Asia about the year 1550 ; 

 and the earliest notice of its appearance in England occurs in 

 Gerard's Herhal, where in 1579 he speaks of it as a rare tree. 

 When first introduced it was planted with walnuts and mul- 

 berries as a fruit tree, and it is curiously enough described as 

 " a tree whose fruit was of a sweet taste, roasted and eaten as 

 the ordinary sort," and shows how little was really then known 

 of it or its fruit. Evelyn, who wrote in 1663, referring to the 

 slow progress the tree had made in popular estimation even at 

 that date, says of it : — " In the meantime, I wish we did more 

 universally propagate the horse chestnut, which, being increased 

 from layers, grows into a goodly standard, and bears a glorious 

 flow^er, even in our cold country. This tree is now (1663) all 

 the mode for the avenues to their country palaces in France, as 

 appears by the late superintendent's plantation at Vaux." A 

 branch of the horse chestnut with flowers on it was received by 

 Clusius from Vienna in 1603, Singularly, even he had never 

 seen it till that time, and gave the first figure of it in 1605. It 

 was not known in Paris till 1616, and was probably first planted 

 generally in Britain about that time, or soon afterwards. 



According to the authority of Dr Heldreich, director of the 

 Botanic Gardens at Athens, the horse chestnut is undoubtedly 

 found wild, and indigenous to the mountains of northern Greece, 

 Thessally, and Epirus. He states that he has seen numerous 

 groups of trees in various localities in the mountains of Eury- 

 tania. In the summer of 1879, he found it in five different 

 localities, all of them in the lower pine region, at altitudes vary- 

 ing from 3000 to 4000 feet above sea-level. In such sites it 

 occurs in shady forest ravines, and is associated with the alder, 

 walnut, plane, ash, oaks of various varieties, holly, hornbeam, 

 sycamore, and Ahics apollinis. It is very probable that the 

 earliest introduction of the horse chestnut into Britain was from 

 the districts along the shores and maritime ports of the Levant, 

 and tliat its introduction was coeval with that of the laurel to 

 Eu'disli ''•ardens from the same sources. 



According- to Evelyn, the name horse chestnut was given it 

 from a belief in its supposed medicinal property of curing 

 broken-winded horses and other cattle of cough ; but other old 

 authors a.ssert that it was so called from the peculiar appearance 

 presented by the base of the young leaf-stalks on being cut 

 across in a slantim; direction, between the joints of the former 

 year's growth, wlien an exact representation of the frog and sole 

 of the hoof of a horse is seen. The generic name is of course 

 derived from " A'.sm," si«^'nifying food. One enthusiastic admirer 

 of trees in general, and of this sj)ecies in particuhir, exclaims 

 — "' How can this tree fiul to be otherwise than a much-admired 

 favourite, for its very name is designated by a combination of 



