THE SWEET CHESTNUT. 
Casta'nea sativa Mill. 
WirTH but small claims to be considered a native 
of the British Isles, the Sweet, or Spanish, Chest- 
nut is so generally planted in woods, parks, and 
shrubberies that it is as common and as familiar 
to us as many of our more truly indigenous 
species. 
Its name and origin are alike somewhat doubt- 
ful. It is most abundant in an apparently wild 
state in Southern Europe, extending eastward to 
the Caucasus, and occurring in the islands of the 
Mediterranean at moderate elevations above the sea. 
A similar or identical form occurs in the mountains 
of Virginia, Georgia, and the Carolinas. There are 
forests composed of this species in Alsace and 
Rhenish Prussia; and it is common, though 
possibly planted, in Normandy and around Paris. 
Its fruit does not ripen fully every year with us; 
but this is by no means an infallible proof - that 
a species is not indigenous. 
The name occurs twice in the Authorised Ver- 
sion of the Bible; but there is little reason to sup- 
pose that it is rightly employed, though no doubt 
its starchy nuts must have been widely used for: 
food from the earliest times. The town of Kastana 
in Thessaly is generally referred to as the source 
of the Latin, if not of the Greek name; but, as 
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