CULTIVATED PLANTS. J 6? 



by Varro, who was born iu the year 116 b.g. The Romans 

 called it nux ijersica, nux rerjia, mix Euhcea, Jovis glans, DJiu- 

 glans, Jiiglans, &c. They recognised several varieties, and 

 amongst them the soft-shelled walnut still cultivated, which several 

 commentators have confounded with the peach. In modern days 

 the cultivation has much extended, and the number of varieties 

 considerably increased. Jean Bauhin noticed six only. Micheli, 

 under Cosmo III. of Medicis, describes thirty-seven, of which the 

 original specimens are still preserved ; some of these, however, 

 are scarcely sufficiently distinct from each other. 



The Nut (Corylus avellanaj is said by Pliny to derive the name 

 of Avellana from Abellina in Asia, supposed to be the valley of 

 Damascus, its native country. He adds that it had been brought 

 into Asia and Greece from the Pontus, whence it was also called 

 nux pontica. Theophrastus calls these nuts by the name of 

 Heracleotic nuts, a name derived from Heraclea, now Ponderachi, 

 on the Asiatic shores of the Black Sea. Hippocrates gives them 

 the name of carya thusia. Dioscorides says they were also known 

 by the name of leptocarya, or small nuts. Other ancient writers 

 confound the nut with the chesnut and the walnut. But all the 

 above indications of importation from the East relate only to par- 

 ticular varieties, for the species, as is well known, is common 

 enough in Italy as in the rest of Europe and a great part of Asia 

 iu a really wild indigenous state. 



The Chesnut (Castanea vesca), celebrated amongst European 

 trees for the enormous size it will attain, is already mentioned in 

 the Bible. Theophrastus and Athenseus give it the name of 

 Eubcean nut, from the island of Eubeea, now Negroponte, where it 

 was peculiarly abundant. Pliny says that chesnuts first came 

 from Sardi, the ancient capital of Lydia, and not far from the 

 modern Smyrna, Galen, who was a Lydian, confirms that 

 origin, and says that they were also called hulani leuceni, from 

 Leucene, situated on Mount Ida. Other writers, ancient and 

 modern, give various Eastern countries as the native stations of 

 the chesnut, and even Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti, our author's 

 grandfather, believed them to be introduced only into Italy ; but 

 not only have the extensive chesnut woods in the Apuan Alps 

 and other parts of the Apennines, mentioned by Bertoloui, every 

 appearance of being really indigenous, but further evidence that 

 woods of this tree existed in Tuscany from very remote times, 

 may be found in the number of places which have derived their 

 names from them, such as Castagna, Castagnaia, Castagneta, &c. 



