SPANISH CHESTNUT 125 



spread over Southern and Western Europe. It, at all 

 events, centuries ago, made itself thoroughly at home in 

 our midst, though we do not find it, except in parks, hedges, 

 or copses where it has obviously been planted by man. 

 It appears to do best on a deep sandy loam. It forms 

 great natural forests in the south of Europe, and the 

 reason that we call it in England the Spanish chestnut 

 is because enormous quantities of its fruit are yearly im- 

 ported to our shores from Spain. 



Some botanical and philological experts tell us that 

 the tree derives its botanical name trom the little town 

 of Castanea in Thessaly, where it is said to have been 

 especially in evidence, but other authorities turn the matter 

 the other way round and declare that it was this multitude 

 of trees that gave its name to the town. In Welsh it 

 is the Castan-wydden, in French chdtaignier, in German 

 Kastanien, in Spanish Castana, in Russian Keshtann, in 

 Swedish Kastanje, the Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, and 

 Danish names being all of very similar nature to these.' 



The Spanish chestnut, when well grown, forms a very 

 noble tree, equalling even the oak in picturesqueness and 

 rugged beauty in its noble trunk and grand ramification. 

 Its massive branches are thrown boldly out nearly hori- 

 zontally from the trunk, and at times sweep down to the 

 ground. It is a tree that Salvator Rosa loved to paint : 

 though to him it was not the stately adornment of some 

 well-kept English park, but at home, in all the wild 



' It is very curious and unusual to find such a sameness in plant names 

 used in different countries. There is ordinarily much more diversity ; the 

 tree, for instance, that we call oak is to the Frenchman chene, to the Italian 

 guercia, to the Spaniard roblc, to the Portuguese carvalho, and to the 

 German ciche. 



