10 



THE CHESTNUT. 



Naples. Theophrastus, who wrote in the third 

 century before the Christian era, speaks of it 

 under the name of Jupiter's nut, as a tree origi- 

 nally 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, ripen- 

 ing its fruit 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 which 

 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 natural- 

 ized. On the Alps and Pyrenees it flourishes 

 at an elevation of between 2,500 to 2,800 feet, 

 the nuts having been perhaps 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 Old Testament (Gen. 

 XXX. 37, and Ezek. xxi. 8) : but in the former 

 of these passages the Septuagint translation ren- 

 ders the Hebrew word armon, by plane, in the 

 latter by pine, RosenmuUer 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 



