THE HORSE CHESTNUT. 



189 



even by those who had seen it, may be inferred from the 

 fact that Parkinson in 1629 places it as a fruit-tree between 

 the Walnut and the Mulberry, and says also that it is of as 

 good use as those trees for the fruit, which is of a sweet 

 taste, roasted and eaten as the ordinary sort. Some of the 

 trees planted at Baden in the sixteenth century are said to 

 be still in existence. 



The name of ^sculus, from 

 esca, food, was applied originally 

 to a species of Oak which, ac- 

 cording to Pliny, was highly prized 

 for its acorns, but how it came to 

 be transferred .to the Horse Chest- 

 nut is very uncertain. The name 

 " Horse Chestnut " is undoubtedly 

 received from the fact that young 

 branches have impressed on the 

 bark, wherever a leaf has fallen, 

 a mark resembling the print of a 

 horse's shoe. 



The Horse Chestnut is a tree of large size, frequently 

 reaching a height of fifty or sixty feet, with an erect trunk 

 and a broad pyramidal outline. It may be readily distin- 

 guished even in the depth of winter by its usually large 

 buds, set on the extremities of thick and heavy-looking 

 branches, which are evidently destined to bear a weighty 

 tuft of foliage and leaves. A celebrated German naturalist 

 detached from this tree, in the winter season, a flower-bud, 

 no larger than a pea, in which ho could reckon more than 

 sixty flowers. The external covering was composed of 

 seventeen scales, cemented together by a gummy substance, 

 and protecting from moisture the down which formed the 

 internal covering of the bud. Having carefully removed 

 both the scales and down, he discovered four leaves sur- 

 rounding a spike of flowers, and the. latter so clearly 

 visible, that, with the aid of a microscope, he not only 

 counted sixty-eight flowers, but could discern the pollen of 



