C H ] 
wood, unkls grubbed up with the greatefl care; nor 
is it then eafily extirpated. 
3. The feed of fuch tree mufl ripen kindly : na- 
ture never plants but where a fuccedion may be eafily 
continued, and in the greateft profufion. ' 
Lahiy; Many places in every country muff receive 
their appellation from indigenous trees which grow 
there ; as no circumftance is more ftriking, when a 
- tract of ground is to be defcribed or diftinguiflied : 
hence fo many towns, villages, and farms are named 
from the oak and afh, which are the mofl: common 
trees of Great Britain. 
When the inftances of this are lingular, it will 
prove direftly the contrary ; as I hope to fliew foon 
with regard to the chefnut and the box. 
Having ventured to premife thefe general rules, by 
which it may be determined, whether a tree hath been 
planted by the hand of nature or not ; 1 fhall now 
begin, by confidering the proofs which are commonly 
relied upon, with regard to the Spanidi, or fweet, 
chefnuts being indigenous in Great Britain. 
And, firft, the very name of Spanifh feems moft 
ftrongly to indicate the country from which it was 
originally introduced here, as much as if a particular 
fpecies of oak was known in Spain by the name of the 
Englifh oak. 
There may be fome doubts, perhaps, whether this 
tree is really a native of any part of Europe, as Pliny 
informs us, chefnuts were brought from Sardis to 
Italy, and that they were improved in tafte* by Ti- 
berius, who took particular delight in cultivating them 
* Pliny, lib. XV. cap. xxiii. 
I have 
