268 THE NUT CULTUKIST. 



tory to support such a claim, or that Eateigh himself 

 ever planted or cultivated the American potato in Ire- 

 land or England, or, in fact, ever tasted one of these 

 tubers. 



GR0UND2!iruT. — See Peanut or Goober. 



Hazelitut, OS Chile hazel. — This is merely a 

 local English name for the fruit of a small evergreen 

 tree, native of Chile, S. A., where it is known as Guevina, 

 and this has been adopted as the name of the genus, ■ 

 adding the specific name of the European hazel, so we 

 have Guevina Avellana, although in some botanical 

 works it may be found under the name of Qudria hetero- 

 phylla. It belongs to the Pro tea family (ProieacecB). 

 It has white, hermaphrodite flowers, in long axillary 

 racemes ; these are succeeded by coral-red fruit about 

 the size of a large cherry ; the stone or nut-like seeds 

 being edible are largely used by the Chileans. They are 

 said to taste like the hazel, hence the name. Trees are 

 hardy in the southwest of England, and would probably 

 succeed here in the Southern States. It has been 

 planted and found to thrive in California. • Eeadily 

 propagated from seed or green cuttings under glass. 



Hokse-chestnut. — The fruit of a genus of decid- 

 uous ornamental trees and shrubs, native of Asia and 

 INorth America. The common horse-chestnut, or ^s- 

 culus Hippocastanum, is a native of Asia, and was intro- 

 duced into Europe over three hundred years ago, its 

 large, smooth seeds and prickly husks probably suggest- 

 ing both its common and scientific names, although 

 these trees do not even belong to the same order as the 

 true edible chestnuts (Castanea), but to the soapworts 

 (Sapindacece). It is supposed that the prefix, "horse," 

 was derived from a custom among the Turks, of giving 

 the nuts to horses as a medicine when these animals 

 were afflicted with a cough or inclined to become wind- 

 broken. In southern Europe they are sometimes fed to 



