iESCULUS HIPPOCASTANUM. 
113 
it has a rough mucilaginous taste, but no remarkable smell; it 
possesses some demulcent, and perhaps pectoral properties, and 
hence it has been recommended, but we believe with very little 
effect, in coughs, phthisis, asthma, &c. in which cases it is usually 
taken boiled upon milk: every part of the plant has been medici- 
nally used as a demulcent, but more particularly the leaves and 
flowers; the former are the principal ingredient in the botanical 
herb-tobacco. The smoking of this plant has been recommended 
by Dioscorides, Galen, PHny, and even Boyle.* 
OflF. The Herb and Flowers. 
iESCULUS HIPPOCASTANUM, 
Common Horse Chesnut,'\ 
Class Heptandria.— Or«?er Monogynia. 
Nat. Ord. TRiHiLATiE, Linn. Acera, Juss. 
Gen. Char. Calyx 1-leaved, 5- toothed, swelled out. Corolla 
four or five unequally coloured petals inserted into the calyx. 
Capsule 3-celled. 
Spec. Char. Leaves digitate, with seven leaflets. Corolla 
5-petalled, Capsules prickly. 
Matthiolus appears to be the first author who described the 
horse chesnut.^ This species of jEscuIus is a native of the northern 
parts of Asia, and was first introduced into Europe about the middle 
of the sixteenth century ; in the time of Clusius only one tree was 
known at Vienna, which being too young to bear fruit,§ nuts were 
* " Et adhuc hodie plebs in Suecia instar tabaci contra tussim sagit." Lin. Flor. 
Saec. p. 289. ; and under the direction of Pliny it was very saccessful, " in singulos 
haustas passum gustandum est." liib. xx.vi. c. 6. p. 561. 
•f- Fig. a. in the drawing represents a cutting, the leaves much reduced in size. b. The 
top of a spike of flowers of the natural size, c. A stamen, d. The pistillum. c. The 
calyx. /. A petal, g. The fruit. 
t Epist Medicinal. Op. Omn. p. 101, 125. 
§ Murray App, Med. vol. iv. p. 93. 
VOL. I. Q 
