FAG 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



FAG 



Fagrcea; a genus of the class Pentandria, order Mono- 

 gynia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth one-leafed, 

 bell-shaped, five-parted ; divisions obtuse, incumbent, mem- 

 branaceous at the end. Corolla -. one-petalled, funnel-shaped ; 

 tube round, gradually widening to the top, long; border 

 twisted, five-parted ; divisions oblong, oblique, obtuse, entire, 

 patulous. Stamina : filamenta five, filiform, equal, inserted 

 into the tube, shorter than the corolla; antherce ovate, twin, 

 vertical, convex outwards, four-furrowed, flat on the inner 

 side, easily bipartile. Pistil: srermen superior; style filiform, 

 the length of the corolla; stigma peltate, orbiculate, flat. 

 Pericarp : berry ovate, fleshy, covered with an epidermis, 

 two-celled. Seeds: orbiculate, smooth. ESSENTIAL CHA- 

 RACTER. Calix: bell-shaped. Corolla: funnel-shaped. 

 Berry: two-celled, fleshy. Seeds: globular. Stigma: pel- 

 tate. The only known species is, 



1. Fagraea Zeylanica. Stem becoming shrubby, erect, 

 somewhat four-cornered, a finger in thickness, and two feet 

 high ; leaves fastigiately opposite, petioled, frequent, obovate- 

 oblong, very obtuse, entire, coriaceous, a hand broad, and a 

 span long; petioles semicolumnar, an inch in length; flowers 

 terminating, subumbelled, peduncled; the umbel has about 

 three flowers ; peduncles one-flowered, bracted, half an inch 

 in length ; bractes opposite, ovate, obtuse. It is a native of 

 Ceylon, flowering in December and January. 



Fagus; a genus of the class Monoecia, order Polyandria. 

 GENERIC CHARACTER. Male Flowers, fixed to a common 

 amentaceous receptacle. Calix : perianth one-leafed, bell- 

 shaped, five-cleft. Corolla : none. Stamina: filamenta many, 

 the length of the calix, setaceous ; antherte oblong. Female 

 Flowers, in a bud of the same plant. Calix : perianth one- 

 leafed, four-toothed, erect, acute. Corolla: none. Pistil: 

 germen covered with the calix ; styles three, subulate ; stig- 

 mas simple, reflex. Pericarp: capsule (which was the calix) 

 roundish, very large, covered with soft spines, one-celled, 

 two or four valved. Seeds: nuts one or two, ovate, three- 

 cornered, three-valved, acuminate. Observe. In the third 

 species, or Beech, the male flowers are in a ball ; in Chest- 

 nut they are in a cylinder. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Male. 

 Calix: five-cleft, bell-shaped. Corolla: none. Stamina: 

 twelve. Female. Calix : four-toothed ; styles three. Cap- 

 sule: (which was the calix) rouricate, four-valved. Seeds: 

 two. The species are, 



1. Fagus Castanea; Common Chestnut Tree. Leaves l.in- 

 ceolate, with acuminate serratures, naked underneath. This 

 tree will grow to a very great size, and spread its branches 

 finely on every side where it has room, but planted closely, 

 will shoot up straight to a great height. The leaves, which 

 are large, and of a lucid green, end in a very lone taper 

 point, and the serratures terminate in <i tender kind of 

 prickle; they are about four or five inches long, and two 

 wide, somewhat wrinkled, having several transverse veins, 

 prominent on the under surface, and proceeding from a 

 strong midrib. The aments or catkins of male flowers are 

 pendulous at the ends of the branches, very long, and resem- 

 ble those of Walnut. They have a stron" spermatic smell; 

 and the flowers, which are sessile, are collected in remote 

 little balls. The proportion of male flowers to the females is 

 prodigious. The stamina are about nine in number, some 

 say from five to eighteen. In the female flowers, the number 

 of styles varies from four to seven, but six is the most com- 

 mon. The calix becomes an echinate capsule of four valves, 

 of a silky smoothness on the inside, and containing two nuts, 

 sometimes three, or only one. This tree has long been natu- 

 ralized in the southern countries of Europe, and is said to 

 have been brought by the Koman emperor, Tiberius Ceesar, 



from Sardis to Lydia in Italy, whence it was transplanted 

 into France, and latterly into England. It is indigenous in 

 many parts of Asia, in China, Cochin-china, Japan, &c. The 

 Chestnut abounds now in the mountainous parts of Italy, in 

 the soutii of France, Switzerland, the Valais, and many parts 

 of the Alps towards Italy, in Corsica, and Sicily, where it grows 

 half way up the side of Mount /Etna, as well as in Carniola, 

 some parts of Germany, Portugal, and Spain. Mr. Miller 

 supposes it formerly to have been more plentiful than at pre- 

 sent in England, but it is probable that the timber in various 

 old buildings in London, which he supposed to be Chestnut, 

 was nothing but Oak of a different grain, and inferior qua- 

 lity. Evelyn makes little doubt that the Chestnut-tree is a 

 native of Great Britain ; and Dr. Ducarel, who is of the same 

 opinion, among other ancient records to which he appeals, 

 produces a deed of gift from King Henry II. to Flexley 

 Abbey, of the tithe of all his Chestnuts in the forest of Dean. 

 The lion. Daines Barrington, on the contrary, thinks that it 

 is not a native. It certainly is not in the woods north of the 

 Trent ; and, though it has been long in the southern parts, 

 yet, says Hunter, there is no appearance of its being indige- 

 nous. This tree seems to be very long-lived, and grows to 

 a very great size. The famous castagito de cento cavalli, or 

 Chestnut of a hundred horses, on Mount ./Etna, as measured 

 by Mr. Brydone in 1770, was 204 feet in circumference; but 

 some maintain that it is not one tree, and even Brydone him- 

 self confesses that it had the appearance of five distinct trees, 

 but that he was assured the space was once filled with solid 

 timber, and that no bark could be discovered on the inner 

 parts. Kircher, who wrote a century before, declares, that 

 a whole flock of sheep might be commodiously enclosed 

 within it, as in a fold. In the same neighbourhood is 

 another tree, called il castagno del galca, which is undoubt- 

 edly single, and measured at the same time seventy-six feet 

 round, at two feet from the ground; but it should not b' 

 forgotten, that both these monstrous trees grow upon a deef 

 rich soil, formed from the. ashes of the volcano. The most 

 remarkable of these trees in England, is that at Tortwortb, 

 the seat of Lord Ducie, in Gloucestershire. Even in the year 

 11.50, says Bradley, it was styled the great or old Chestnut- 

 tree of Torrworth ; and in all probability is at least one thou- 

 sand years old. It fixes the boundary of the manor ; and in 

 the year 1720, girted fifty-one feet, at a man's height from 

 the ground. It divided at the crown into three limbs, one 

 of which then measured twenty-eight feet and a half in cir- 

 cumference, five feet above the ground. The soil in which 

 this tree grows is a soft, and somewhat loamy clay, and its 

 situation on the north-west side of a hill. Lord Ducie has ft 

 beautiful painting of this ancient tree, from which an etching 

 was made in the year 1772, under which is the following 

 inscription : " The east view of the ancient Chestnut-tree at 

 Tortworth, in the county of Gloucester, which measures 

 nineteen yards in circumference, and is mentioned by Sir 

 Robert Atkyns, in his history of that county, as a famous 

 tree in Kin<* John's time; and by Mr. Evelyn, ia his Sylva, 

 to have been so remarkable for its magnitude, in the reign 

 of King Stephen, as then to be called the Great Chestnut of 

 Tortworlh : from which it may reasonably bo presumed to 

 have been standinsr before the conquest." \Vhen the above- 

 mentioned etching was made, it was bnrely included within 

 the garden-wall, which bore hard upon it; but the present Lord 

 Ducie removed the incutnbrance, and applied fresli earth to 

 the roots, which seems to have enlivened it. So late as the 

 year 1788, it produced great quantities of fruit, which, 

 though small, were sweet, and well-flavoured. Mr. Lyson*, 

 however, who measured this famous tree in 1791, says, that 



