474 
but if the seeds are not sown till spring, the plants will not appear till the following spring, whereby 
a whole year is lost. The seeds should be sown upon a shady border, where they will succeed 
better than when they are more exposed to the sun. When the plants come up, they will require 
no other care but to keep them clean from weeds till the following autumn, when, as soon as their 
leaves decay, the plants should be taken up and transplanted into a nursery, in rows two feet 
distant, and the plants one foot asunder in the rows; in this place they may remain two years, and 
then they may be removed to the places where they are to remain. 
Genus 17 * Fagus, Chesnut . Beech . Class XXI, Monoecia. 
Order VIII. Polyandria. 
Species 1 . Common Chesnut-tree. (Fagus Castanea.) 
The Chesnut-tree has its name Castanea, from Castanis, a town in Thessaly. This tree will 
grow to a very great size, and spread its branches finely on every side where it has room; but 
planted closely, will shoot up straight to a great height. The leaves are large, of a lucid green; 
they end in a long very taper point, and the serratures terminate in a kind of tender prickle; they 
are about four or five inches long, and two wide, somewhat wrinkled, having several transverse 
veins, prominent on the under surface, and proceeding from a strong midrib. The aments or cat¬ 
kins of male flowers are pendulous at the ends of the branches, very long, and resemble those of the 
walnut.* They have a strong spermatic smell; the flowers are collected in remote little balls, and 
are sessile. The proportion of male flowers to the females is prodigious. The stamens are about 
nine in number. In the female flowers the number of styles varies from four to seven, but six is 
the most common. The calyx becomes an echinate capsule of four valves, of a silky smoothness 
on the inside; and containing two nuts, sometimes three, or only one/j- 
The Chesnut, in maturity and perfection, says Mr. Gilpin, is a noble tree, and grows not unlike 
the oak. Its ramification is more straggling, but it is easy, and its foliage loose. This is the tree 
which graces the landscapes of Salvator Rosa, who painted in the mountains of Calabria, where it 
flourishes. 
The Chesnut has long been naturalized to the southern countries of Europe. It is said that 
Tiberius Caesar first brought it from Sardis in Lydia to Italy, whence it was propagated into France, 
and so among us.J It is indigenous in many parts of Asia, in China, Cochinchina, Japan, See. 
The Chesnut abounds now in the mountainous parts of Italy, in the South of France, in Switzer¬ 
land, in the Valais, and many parts of the Alps towards Italy, in Corsica and Sicily, where it grows 
half way up mount Etna; also in Carniola, some parts of Germany, See. 
With us in England, says Miller, it was formerly in greater plenty than at present, as may be 
proved by the old buildings in London, which were for the most part of this timber; and there are 
remains of old decayed Chesnuts in the woods and chaces not far distant from London, particularly 
Enfield chace. I doubt very much, however, whether the timber supposed by Mr. Miller, and by 
architects in general, to be Chesnut in our buildings, be any thing more than Oak of a different 
grain, and inferior quality. 
Mr. Evelyn makes little doubt but that the Chesnut is a native of this island. Dr. Ducarel is of 
the same opinion, and among the ancient records to which he appeals, produces a deed of gift from 
* Ray, 
•f Haller, Scopoli, Ray. 
I Evelyn. 
