the Quercus and Fagus of the Ancients. 15 



sacred to Jupiter : " Fagutali Jovi etiam nunc, ubi lucus fageus fuit." Pliny 

 here speaks of the grove as no longer in existence : we may infer that in his 

 time it had disappeared altogether, or, being composed of the sweet chestnut, 

 he could not recognise it as a " lucus fageus," because we know the Fagus 

 with him signified the Beech. Indeed, he expressly mentions a most beautiful 

 grove of beech trees, which were consecrated, not to Jupiter, but to Diana ; 

 and a very appropriate dedication this tree must have been to the celestial 

 huntress, for its mast is the favourite food of the buck and the boar, and all 

 the nobler animals of chase. " Est in suburbano Tusculani agri colle, qui Corne 

 appellatur, lucus antiqua. religione Dianae sacratus a Latio, velut arte tonsili 

 coma. fagei nemoris." (A r . H., xvi. 91.). And its light wood was not ill adapted 

 to the manufacture of hunting javelins: — 



" Brown Exercise rejoiced to hear, 

 And Sport leapt up, and seized his beechen spear."* 



Although Diana might not have contested with Jupiter any claim to the 

 possession of the Fagus, we find another divinity deriving from the Phegos an 

 honourable surname, which forms a point of infinite importance in settling the 

 question as to what that tree was. We are told by Eustathius, in his commen- 

 tary upon Homer (II., vi. 60.), that " Phegaleus " was a title conferred upon 

 Bacchus, from the circumstance of the support which the Phegos afforded to 

 the " gadding vine," Sid rag dvadevSpdSag dfnr'fXovg. It would be impossible 

 to adduce a better proof than this, that the Greek Phegos must have 

 been the sweet chestnut ; for, whether we refer to the practice of the 

 Romans in this respect, or consult the usages of modern times, we shall 

 find invariably that the props formed of chestnut poles are universally 

 preferred in vineyards, just as in England the acknowledged superiority 

 of chestnut hop poles is annually causing an increased cultivation of that 

 tree for coppice wood. " Castanea pedamentis omnibus praefertur, faci- 

 litate tractatus, perdurandi pervicacia, regerminatione csedua. vel salice laetior," 

 says Pliny (A r . H., xvii. 34.); and Columella (De Re Rustica, iv. 33.) gives 

 very minute directions for the formation of Castaneta, an acre of which, he 

 tells us, ought to produce 12,000 poles. " The chestnut is cultivated in the 

 south of Germany, chiefly as undergrowth, for fence wood, hop poles, and 

 vine props." (Arboretum, p. 1990.) Nor was Bacchus under less obligation 

 to the Phegos, or chestnut, for its assistance in a subsequent stage, in the 

 preparation of the grape's ecstatic juice. " French writers," observes Mr. 

 Loudon (Arboretum, p. 1991.), " state that the chestnut wood is a good deal 

 used for making wine casks f, a circumstance noticed by Rapin, in his poem 

 entitled The Garden: — 



" ' With close-grain'd chestnut, wood of sovereign use, 

 For casking up the grape's most powerful juice.' 



Wine is said to ferment in chestnut casks more slowly, and be less likely to 

 evaporate ; it also does not contract any unpleasant taste." For this purpose 

 the beech is, I believe, inapplicable : if, therefore, we find the " faginea materia " 

 applied by the Romans to this use, we may augur that staves made of the wood 

 of the chestnut are to be understood. Not only do we find authority for 

 such an application of the Fagus in Latin writers, but we find it at a period of 

 their literature, when, as I have before observed, we may reasonably conclude 

 that their Fagus had not fallen away from its original Greek signification. 

 Cato the Censor, who lived and wrote a hundred years before the birth of 



* Mention of spears formed of the wood of the beech occurs in Homer, 

 II, a. 50. 



'Arpeidrjg Mtv&\aog e\' sy%s'i 6%voevri' 



on which Porphyrius remarks, "Ey%sa b^voevra, s£ 6S,vng rov devSpov wg Kai 

 'Apx&oxog " 6S,vrj 7roraro," dXX' ov rd 6£,ea, <l)g ol TpafifiaTiicol dirodedwicaai. 

 f See also Dr. Hunter's note on Evelyn, i. 153, 



