140 TREE ANCESTORS 



inconclusive, so many other genera show beyond question that 

 there was a close filiation between the forms of the different north- 

 em continents, that it seems that the oaks could not be an ex- 

 ception to this general history, although it is very doubtful if there 

 was any possibility of an interchange of species between the Old 

 and New Worlds after late Eocene or Ohgoccnc times. 



THE CHESTNUT 



The scientific name of the genus to which the chestnut belongs 

 is Castanea, derived from the town of Castane in Thessaly, once 

 famous for its chestnuts. The common name is said to be derived 

 from the fact that the nuts are borne in an enclosed box or chest. 

 Five existing species are recognized. The most famihar of t/icse 

 is the common European Spanish, or sweet chestnut as distinct 

 from the horse-chestnut, which belongs to a totally different family 

 of trees. This so-called Spanish chestnut, so named because most 

 of the commercial supplies were formerly shipped from Spain, is 

 often called the Italian chestnut in this country for the same reason. 

 It is a magnihcent tree, indigenous in Mediterranean countries 

 from Portugal to Persia. Rumor places its home in the Pontus 

 region and goes on to relate that the Emperor Tiberius introduced 

 it into Italy from Asia Minor and that it spread from thence over 

 southern Europe. Since it occurs fossil in France and Spain 

 before the Pleistocene glaciation, and is found in the Interglacial 

 deposits of Italy before the men of the Old Stone Age are known 

 to have arrived in that country, the traditions mentioned above 

 are conclusively disproved. 



It is a most imposing and stately tree, attaining a very great 

 size, and many large trees are on record. The most celebrated of 

 these is the Castagno di cento cavalli, or tree under which 100 horse- 

 men once took refuge, growing on the slopes of Mount Etna, and 

 which, according to the measurements of Count Borch made in 

 1780, had a circumference of 190 feet. The Tortworth chestnut, 

 said to have been a boundary tree in the time of King John, was 

 still standing in 1788. At 5 feet from the ground it is said to have 



