Flora and Sylva
Last week, we noted that it is the season for gourds and pumpkins (or pompions as John Gerard would have it). This week we note that it is also the season for chestnuts roasting on an open fire. In America, we used to eat the fruit of the American Chestnut (Castanea dentata -- here referred to as vesca), and occasionally its American relative the Chinkapin or Dwarf Chestnut (Castanea pumila), until the American Chestnut was devastated by the chestnut blight of the early 20th century. Today we tend to consume the European Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa).
Chestnuts should never be confused with the similar-looking but unrelated horse chestnuts, the Common Buckeye (Aesculus flava -- here referred to as Pavia lutea) or the Ohio Buckeye (Aesculus glabra -- here referred to as Pavia Ohioensis), as they can be poisonous.
These images are from the 1865 edition of François André Michaux’s landmark work, The North American Sylva, in five volumes including Thomas Nuttall’s 2-volume continuation, published in Philadelphia by Rice, Rutter & Co., and donated to UWM Special Collections by Lynde Bradley Uihlein. We also hold the 1857-59 Michaux/Nuttall in five volumes, published in Philadelphia by Rice & A. N. Hart.
View other posts from our editions of the North American Sylva.
View other posts from the Uihlein donation of important botanical and horticultural books.
View more posts from our Flora and Sylva series.