July 08, 2026
HORSE-CHESNUT
It has been suggested that the Horse-Chesnut (Æsculus Hippocastanum) derived its name from the resemblance of the cicatrix of its leaf to a horse-shoe, with all its nails evenly placed. The old writers, however, seem to have considered that the Horse-Chesnut was so called from the Nuts being used in Turkey (the country from which we first received the tree) as food for horses touched in the wind. Thus we read in Parkinson’s ‘Paradisus’:—“They are usually in Turkey given to horses in their provender to cure them of coughs, and help them being broken winded.”
Evlia Effendi, a Moslem Dervish, who travelled over a large portion of the Turkish empire in the beginning of the seventeenth century, says: “The Santon Akyazli lived forty years under the shade of a wild Chesnut-tree, close to which he is buried under a leaden-covered cupola. The Chesnuts, which are as big as an egg, are wonderfully useful in the diseases of horses.” Tradition says that this tree sprang from a stick which the saint once thrust in the ground, that he might roast his meat on it.
The Venetians entertain the belief that one of these Nuts carried in the pocket is a sure charm against hemorrhoids.
When Napoleon I. returned to France on March 20th, 1814, a Horse-Chesnut in the Tuileries garden was found to be in full blossom. The Parisians regarded this as an omen of welcome, and in succeeding years hailed with interest the early flowering of the Marronnier du Vingt Mars.
(See also Chesnut).