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 iEsculus, from 

 fsca, 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 " it xmdoiibtedly 

 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. 



Tlie 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, Avhich 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 he 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 



