HORSE-CHESTNUT. 



from the extremity of a common petiole. The flowers are ar- 

 ranged in terminal, somewhat paniclecl, racemes, on rather 

 short peduncles. The calj'x is tubular, monophyllous, and 

 divided at the margin into five obtuse teeth. The corolla con- 

 sists of five vmequal spreading petals, which are ovate, some- 

 what undulated at the margin^, white, and inserted by narrow 

 claws into the calyx, with a rose-coloured or yellowish mark at 

 the base. The stamens are seven in number, with awl-shaped, 

 curved, tapering filaments, about the length of the petals, and 

 oblong, somewhat incumbent anthers. The germen is roundish, 

 three-cornered, and three-celled ; the style simple, short, fili- 

 form, acute, terminated by a pointed stigma. The fruit is 

 a coriaceous, three-celled, three-valved capsule, beset exter- 

 nally with short spines, and containing in general two seeds, 

 which are large, roundish, shining, and destitute of albumen ; 

 the embryo is curved, inverted, with thick, very fleshy, 

 cohering cotyledons ; the plumule is very large, two-leaved ; 

 the radicle, conical, curved, and turned towards the hilum. 

 Plate II, fig. 4, (a) the calyx; (6) a single stamen; (c) the 

 pistil. 



This well known tree migrated orijjinallv from the north of 

 Asia, by Constantinople, about the middle of the sixteenth cen- 

 tury : it is not known in what year, but Matthiolus * is the first 

 botanist who mentions it. In the time of Clusius, it was so rare 

 that when he left Vienna, to which city much of the fruit was 

 brought from Constantinople in 15S8, he only saw one tree, 

 which was not more than twelve years old. That it was very 

 little known here in 1630—40 may be gathered from Parkin- 

 son, who states, that he cultivated it in his orchard as a fruit 

 tree, esteeming the nuts superior to the ordinary sort. It is 

 now very common in this country, especially in parks and ave- 

 nues, and aftords a magnificent spectacle during the month of 

 May, when its flowers are in full perfection. 



The generic name is derived from esca, food, whence 

 cesculus, a term which the Romans gave to the tree now called 

 Quercus .'Esculus. Hippocastanum is compounded of iTtvo;, a 

 horse, and y.x'7T%vy,', a chestnut, because horses are said to 

 eat the fruit greedily, and by it to have been cured of coughs 

 and pulmonary disorders. 



* Epist. medicinalibus (Oper. ora. p. 101. 1 -">). 



