The Universal Herbal: Aesculus Hippocastanum; Common Horse Chesnut.

The Universal Herbal;
or botanical, medical and agricultural dictonary.
Containing an account of All the known Plants in the World, arranged according to the Linnean system. Specifying the uses to which they are or may be applied, whether as food, as medicine, or in the arts and manufactures.
With the best methods of propagation, and the most recent agricultural improvements.
collected from indisputable Authorities.
Adapted to the use of the farmer - the gardener - the husbandman - the botanist - the florist - and country housekeepers in general.
By Thomas Green.
Vol. I
Liverpool.
Printed at the Caxton Press by Henri Fisher.
Printer in Ordinary to His Majesty.
1824The flowers with seven stamina; leaves digitate, with seven entire leaflets; capsules prickly. — This tree is well known, and was formerly in greater esteem for walks and avenues than at present, which is owing to the litter made by its leaves when falling: it affords, notwithstanding, a noble shade, very, early in the year, and no tree has more beauty during the time of its flowering, for the extremities off the branches are terminated by fine spikes of flowers, so that every part of the tree seems covered with them, and being intermixed with the large digitate leaves, they make a noble appearance, continuing in beauty for nearly a month. In Turkey the nuts are ground, and mixed with the provender of those horses which have coughs or are broken-winded. Some assert that swine will fatten on them, and Haller says that sheep have been fed with them whole, and poultry with them boiled, and that both have done well; but this is disputed by others. The bark may be used to save soap in washing, as it has a saponaceous quality; it has been successfully used in Italy as a medicine for intermittent fevers; and has answered very well in dyeing several sorts of yellow colours. Notwithstanding the bad character Mr. Miller gives of the timber of this tree, it is said to be useful in making pipes to convey water under ground, as it will last longer than harder woods. Dr. Hunter says it is used for turnery, and is worth sixpence per foot in the north of England. Mr. Hanbury confirms Hunter's account, and adds, that the tree grows speedily to a great magnitude, and sells at such a price as to make it well worth planting for the sake of the timber, and that it ought to be felled in November or December. This species was brought from the northern parts of Asia nearly three centuries ago, and is more common now than it was an hundred years since. These trees are propagated by sowing the nutsearly in the spring, but they must be preserved in sand during the winter, otherwise they will mould and rot. They will shoot nearly a foot the first summer, and if they stand close, should be transplanted the next autumn into the nursery, and remain there two years; they should then be removed where they are in tended to remain, and well secured by a fence of good stakes against young cattle and violent winds.