History of Rare Plants Observed in Pannonia

A

A detailed botanical woodcut illustration shows a branch from a horse chestnut tree. The branch features three large palmate compound leaves, which are leaves where leaflets radiate from a single point like fingers on a hand. Each leaf is composed of seven serrated leaflets. Below the main branch, two depictions of the chestnut seed, often called a conker, are shown. One seed displays the smooth, dark exterior of the nut, while the other shows the large, pale circular scar known as the hilum.

ON THE HORSE CHESTNUT.

CHAPTER II.

The famous Pietro Andrea Mattioli An influential 16th century Italian physician and botanist. described the Horse Chestnut original: "Castanea Equina", now known scientifically as Aesculus hippocastanum. in his commentaries on the first book of Dioscorides A Greek physician and the author of "De Materia Medica", the primary botanical text of the era.. However, it has not yet been seen by our people, or certainly only very rarely. Since it grew excellently for me alongside the plant mentioned above The Cherry-laurel discussed in Chapter I., I decided to add its history immediately after that one.

History of the Horse Chestnut.

This tree is very enduring of the cold. It seems to delight in shade and water, just like the Plane tree A large, deciduous tree of the genus Platanus.. In the autumn, when it has lost its leaves, it immediately bears a catkin-like growth at the ends of its small branches. These are swollen, as if the tree were pregnant. They are covered with a thick and sticky fluid. Gnats and similar insects stick to this fluid. The tree remains this way through the whole winter u...