176 THE CHESTNUT. 



town of Magnesia, in Tliessaly, where it grew in great 

 abundance, and from which it is said that they first 

 brought it. Pliny enumerates several varieties, the best 

 of which he says grew at Tarentum and I^aples. Theo- 

 phrastus, who wrote in the third century before the Chris- 

 tian era, speaks of it under the name of Jupiter's nut, 

 as a tree originally introduced, but in his time quite 

 naturalized in the mountainous parts of Thessaly. 



From Italy and Greece it appears to have spread over 

 the greater part of temperate Europe, ripening its fruits 

 and sowing itself wherever the grape ripens. It was in 

 all probability introduced into Britain by the Romans for 

 the sake of its fruit ; and here, from being a tree of great 

 duration, and from the paucity of other trees the fruit of 

 Avhich is available for food, it was naturally an object of 

 care and attention. In France, Italy, and Spain, especially 

 the two last countries, it attains a great size, and has all 

 the appearance of being naturalized. (Jn the Alps and 

 Pyrenees it flourishes at an elevation of between 2,500 

 to 2,800 feet, the nuts having been j^erhaps carried to 

 these lofty situations by the animals which lay up stores 

 of winter food. It is still most abundant in Asia Minor, 

 as well as in Armenia and Caucasus, and it is also found 

 in America, as far north as latitude 44". It ripens its 

 fruit in the warmer parts of Scotland ; but rarely, if at 

 all, in Ireland. 



The Chestnut-tree is twice mentioned in the Authorized 

 Version of the (Jld Testament (Gen. xxx. 37, and Ezek. 

 xxi. 8) : but in the former of these passages the Septua- 

 gint translation renders the Hebrew word arynon, hj 2)la)ie, 

 in the latter by 2iine. Eosenmiiller is of opinion that the 

 rendering " plane " is the correct one. 



The Chestnut was, by Linnaeus, placed in the same 

 genus with the Beech, under the name of Fagus Castanea, 

 but modern botanists have again separated tliem, consider- 

 ing the genera sufficiently distinguished by the former 

 having the barren flowers on long spikes, and producing 



