HORSE CHESTNUT. 
139 
The name Chestnut appears to be a modification of the old 
Latin name Castanea, through the French form Chataigner. 
The Latin is said to be derived from Kastanum, a town in 
Thessaly, but it is more likely that the presence of Chestnut- 
trees gave a name to the town, as has happened so many times 
in our own country with various trees, the Chestnut included. 
Horse Chestnut {yEsculus hippocastamm). 
Our placing the Chestnut and the Horse Chestnut into 
juxtaposition must not be understood as a recognition of any 
relationship that may be implied in their names, but rather 
the reverse — to accentuate the differences that exist between 
them, and which have led botanists to separate them widely 
in all systems of classification. Although the fruits are suffi- 
ciently similar to have suggested the name Chestnut being 
applied to this, with a qualifying prefix, they have been 
produced by flowers of entirely different character. Evelyn 
tells us that the word Horse was added because of its virtues 
in “ curing horses broken-winded and other cattle of coughs,” 
a statement for which he was no doubt indebted to Parkinson 
(1640), who says, “Horse Chestnuts are given in the East 
Country, and so through all Turkie, unto Horses to cure 
them of the cough, shortnesse of winde, and such other dis- 
eases but seeing that, in this country at least, horses refuse 
to touch them, there can be little doubt that the name was 
given to indicate their inferiority to the Sweet Chestnut, and 
by a^process only too well known to the student of early 
botanical literature, the name was afterwards held to be 
proof of their medicinal value to horses. 
The Horse Chestnut is a native of the mountain regions 
of Greece, Persia, and Northern India, and is believed to 
have been introduced to Britain about 1550. It is not a tree 
