

CHAP. CV. CORYLA^CEjE. 6'ASTA\NEA. 1937 



abundant on the Apennines, especially at Valomhrosa, and also between 

 Florence and Bologna, and we cannot help noticing a circumstance mentioned 

 In Sir T. D. Lander, as having struck him when in Italy, and with which we 

 were ourselves very much pleased when there; vi/. that these chestnut trees 

 on the Apennines are generally scattered over a muriate resembling the green- 

 sward of a British lawn. According to Dr. R. A. Philippi, fastauca vesca 

 does not appear to be wild in any part of Etna, but always to be cultivated. 

 " We noticed it," he says, " on the sides of Mount Zoccolaro, at a height of 

 3900ft.; and Geinmcllaro is said to have traced it as high as 5100ft. ; but 

 this is probably a mistake, arising from an erroneous calculation of the altitude. 

 On the south side of the Alps, the chestnut trees reach to 2 WO ft., and on the 

 Pyrenees to 2800 ft. Etna is celebrated for the great age and colossal dimen- 

 sions of its chestnut trees : the noted Castagno di Cento Cavalli has a cir- 

 cumference near the root of 180ft.; the Castagno di Santa Agata, 70ft.; and 

 the Castagno della Nave, 64ft. Their stems, however, attain no great height, 

 but soon branch off above the ground ; and, in regard to the first-mentioned 

 one, it seems probable to me that not one stem, but many, shoot from the 

 same root ; for there are now 5 individual trunks separate from each other ; 

 and it is a general custom in Sicily, when these trees attain a diameter of about 

 1 ft., to cut them down just above the root, when a number of new shoots 

 are thrown out, which shortly become trees again. M. Brunner is of the 

 same opinion, as is stated in his Excursion through the East of Liguria, Elba, 

 Sicily, and Malta" (See Comp. to Bot. Mag., vol. i. p. 90.) In North Ame- 

 rica, the sweet chestnut is found as far as lat. 44 N., in New Hampshire ; 

 where, however, it is less common than in Connecticut, New Jersey, and 

 Pennsylvania. It is most abundant in the mountainous districts of the Caro- 

 linas and of Georgia, and abounds on the Cumberland Mountains, and in East 

 Tennessee ; preferring, in all these countries, the sides of mountains, or the 

 fertile gravelly soils in their immediate vicinity. 



History. The sweet chestnut is generally said to have heen brought to 

 Europe by the Greeks, from Sardis, in Asia Minor, about 504 B. c. It was 

 first called, in Greek, Sardianos Balanos, the Sardis nut ; afterwards Dios 

 Balanos Lopimon, from its being considered to bear some resemblance to the 

 walnut, except in the smoothness of its inner bark. The name of Castanea was 

 given to it from Kastanea, the name of a city in Pontus, in Asia ; and also 

 of one in the Vale of Tempe, near the river Peneus ; in both which places 

 the chestnut grew in great abundance, being a native of the former locality, 

 and having been first planted in Greece in the latter, whence it was sent, 

 in the reign of Tiberius Caesar, to Rome. It is evident that the Romans 

 received the chestnut from the Greeks, as they called it both Castanea and 

 Glans Sardiana. Theophrastus mentions that, in his time, Mount Olympus 

 was nearly covered with chestnut trees; and Pliny enumerates eight kinds that 

 were known to the Romans in his day. Pliny adds that chestnuts were ground 

 into meal, and made into bread, by the poor. These were of an inferior kind, 

 to which he gives the name of populares ; and he adds that there was another 

 sort, which were generally boiled, and which were called coctivcB. He like- 

 wise says, " Under the common name of nuts, we comprehend, also, chest- 

 nuts, though they partake rather of the nature of acorns ; except that they 

 have a larger and more prickly covering. It is surprising that we set so little 

 value upon a fruit which nature has taken so much pains to preserve from 

 injury. Sometimes three nuts are found in one of these prickly covers. The 

 first skin of the nut is flexible ; but the second has a bad taste in the mouth, 

 like the skin of the walnut : therefore care should be taken to remove it. 

 Chestnuts are better roasted than cooked in any other manner." (Nat. Hist.) 

 One of the largest and oldest chestnut trees in the world is that on Mount 

 Etna, above mentioned* and which is called Castagno di Cento Cavalli, 

 because, as it is said, Jean of Arragon, on her road from Spain to Naples, 

 visited Mount Etna, attended by her principal nobility, and was- caught in a 

 heavy shower; when the queen, and a hundred cavaliers, took shelter under 

 the branches of this tree, which completely covered them, and saved them 



*6 N 3 



