DODECANDRIA. TRIGYNIA. Castanea. 581 
( E . Bot. 886. E.) — Kniph. 5— Hunt. Evd. p. 159. 1. p. 153. Ed. ii.— Mill. 
84— Tourn. 352— Nat. Disp. ii. 30. at p. 290— Nat. Delia, ii. 19. 3, at p. 
312 —Matth. 211 —Dod. 814. 1 —Lob. Ic . ii. 160. 2, and Ohs. 588. 1 — Ger. 
Em. 1442. 1— Park. 1400. 1— J.B. i. b. 121— Gars. 204— Ger. 1253. 1— 
Blackiu. 330— Fuchs. 377 — Trag. 1100— Lonic. i. 31. 1. 
(A forest tree of the largest dimensions, with deeply cleft bark. E.) Leaves 
ending in a very long taper point: serratures in a kind of thorn. Woodw. 
(Prickles of the outer calyx compound and entangled. Sm. E.) 
Spanish Chesnut Tree. (Welsh: Castanwydden ; Sataen. Fergus 
Castanea. Linn. Castanea vulgaris. De Cand. Hook. Grev. C. vesca. 
Gaert. Willd. The former specific name we reject, as inapplicable to the 
existing state of the tree in this country : the latter we adopt, as descrip¬ 
tive of its edible fruit. E.) Woods and hedges, in Kent, common. 
Burleigh Park, in great abundance. Mr. Woodward. (In Anglesey. 
Welsh Bot. E.) Banks of the Tamer, Cornwall; and at Beckworth 
Castle, Surry, are many fine ones. T. May.* * 
--“ Ita 
Debemur morti nos, nostraque.” 
u Better instructed, learn thou a nobler lesson. Learn that that God, who with the blast 
of winter shrivels the tree, and with the breezes of spring restores it, offers it to thee as an 
emblem of thy hopes. The same God presides over the natural, and moral world. His 
works are uniform. The truths which Nature teaches, as far as they go, are the truShs of 
Revelation also. It is written in both these books, that that power, which revives the tree, 
will revive thee also, like it, with increasing perfection.” Forest Scenery, vol. i. p. 103. E.) 
* (The Chesnut may w r ell be considered as one of the most stately of European 
trees, exceeding the oak in height, and equalling it in bulk and extent. “ Being planted 
in avenues to our country-houses, they are a magnificent and royal ornament; and 
although our Englishmen delight not so much in the fruit as other nations, yet will 
they yield no smali advantage to supply our other occasions.” Syst. Ag. The foliage 
exhibits a more marked character than that of the oak, being formed into stellate clusters,, 
glossy, less liable to depredations from insects, and peculiarly elegant when surrounded by 
the florescent catkins. “ This is the tree,” observes Gilpin, “ which graces the landscapes, 
of Salvator Rosa. In the mountains of Calabria, where Salvator painted, the Ches¬ 
nut flourished. There he studied it in all its forms, breaking and disposing it in a 
thousand beautiful shapes, as the exigencies of his composition required. I have heard,, 
indeed, that it is naturally brittle, and liable to be shattered by winds: which might be one- 
reason for Salvator’s attachment to it.” Previous to sowing it, Evelyn advises, to “ cover 
the nuts with sand ; a month being past, plunge them in w-ater and reject the swimmers: 
being dried for thirty days more, sand them again, and to the water-ordeal as before.”—“A 
counsel you to inter them in their husks, which, being every way armed, are a good 
protection against the mouse, and a providential integument. Pliny, lib. xv. chap. xxm« 
from this natural guard, concludes them to be excellent food ; and doubtless Cre&ar 
thought so, when he transported them from Sardis first into Italy, whence they wesre 
propagated into France, and thence among us.” Whether the Chesnut may be accounted an 
aboriginal of the British Isles, (more generally diffused previous to that deterioration of 
climate which may be inferred since the flourishing vineyards described by Tacitus^), or 
merely introduced at a remote era, as above surmised, has long perplexed the. most 
experienced dendrologists. Several controversial epistles on this subject, between the Hon. 
Daines Barrington and Dr. Ducarel, were read before the Royal Society in 1771 5 but‘the 
question admits of no very satisfactory solution. There is certainly no indication of the 
Chesnut ever having prevailed in North Britain, nor has it latterly been observed in the 
southern portion of the island, except in parks and artificial plantations. The deed of rgift 
by Henry II. to Flaxley Abbey, of the tythe of alibis C'hesimts in the Forest of Dean, 
appears to us far from conclusive ; as it appears not at all improbable that such trees, 
introduced at a much earlier period, might have been planted and protected in that r*oyal 
preserve ; the interval between the final reduction of Roman power, and the reign the- 
first of the Plantagenets, being at least seven centimes, Striped and lacineate variet ies of 
