42 FAMILIAR TREES 



De Candolle lias pointed out, considering that 

 names which are virtually identical are applied to 

 the tree in all the most ancient languages of 

 Central Europe, it is more probable that the town 

 took its name from the trees which surrounded 

 it. Thus the Breton Kidenen, for the tree, and 

 Kistin, for its fruit, and the Welsh Castan-ivydden 

 and Sataen, are closely related to the French 

 Chdtaigne and to the Latin name which is still the 

 scientific appellation of the genus. 



According to Pliny, the Greeks obtained the 

 tree from Sardis in Asia Minor, at least five cen- 

 turies before the Christian era, a statement which 

 De Candolle doubts, since he considers the tree 

 undoubtedly wild in Greece, where, as early as the 

 fourth century B.C., Theophrastus, " the Father of 

 Botany," speaks of it as covering the slopes of 

 Olympus. 



Old Chestnut-trees, especially when once lopped 

 close to the ground, seem often to exhibit a grow- 

 ing together or fusion of many stems into one, 

 a circumstance that explains many of the in- 

 stances of enormous circumference which have 

 led authors not only to assert the indigenous 

 character of the species, but also to claim for it 

 an almost fabulous longevity. 



The largest Chestnut-tree in the world is un- 

 doubtedly the Castagno di cento cavalli (" Chestnut 

 of a hundred horses ") in the forest of Carpinetto, 

 on the east side of Mount Etna. It is 160 feet 

 in circumference, and entirely hollow, a kiln for 

 drying chestnuts an article of food of considerable 



