Abstract
"Oh ! there the chestnuts, summer through, Beside the river make for you A tunnel of green gloom, and sleep Deeply above." RUPERT BROOKE. THE horse-chestnut tree is not indigenous to Great Britain but was introduced in the middle of the sixteenth century; there is some doubt as to its origin, but the general opinion is that it was a native of the Balkan mountains, or perhaps that it was introduced there from Iran, northern India or Tibet. Gerrard speaks of the first tree being heard of in 1579, and from this date it became generally planted throughout western Europe, especially in Sardinia, Sicily and Corsica. In the most favourable circumstances it may attain a height of about 120 ft., with a girth of 18 ft., and in Ireland Elwes mentions a tree at Woodstock, Kilkenny, which was 93 ft. in height and 18 ft. 1 in. in girth. The tree is well known to men, women and children, the former principally for the beauty of its flowers in the early summer, and the latter who wait impatiently for the autumn when they can throw sticks at the branches to dislodge the fruits which contain the seeds or "conkers".
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HOWARD, A. The Horse-Chestnut Tree (Aesculus Hippocastanum). Nature 155, 521–522 (1945). https://doi.org/10.1038/155521a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/155521a0