sweetbrier

Sweetbriar (q. v.). sweet-calabash, s. Botany: Pa iflora mali form is , a pa ion flower, with large, red, white, and blue fugitive flowers, succeeded by a fruit like a good-sized apple, yellow when cipe, with black seeds, a thick rind, and a sweetish edible pulp. It grows wild in the West Indies, where it is called by the Spaniards Granadilla. sweet-calamus, sweet-cane, s. Bot. & Script.: [CANE, II. 2.] sweet-chervil, s. Bot.: Myrrhis odorata . sweet-chestnut, s. Botany: Castanea vesca or vulgar is , a tree with oblong, lanceolate, acuminate, mucro no-serrate, glabrous leaves, and clusters of minute, pale greenish-yellow, unisexual, apetalous flowers in spikes. The fruit is a prickly cupule, husk, or involucre, with one or more nuts, each with one large seed. It grows wild in America and in the south of Europe. On the slopes of Etna, where there are forests of it, there grow some old trees with trunks of enormous girth. The chestnuts of commerce are derived chiefly from the cultivated varieties of the tree, and are larger and sweeter than the wild fruit. The nuts are consumed as an article of daily food in the south of Europe, and in parts of France are served up for breakfast, boiled in milk. Many houses in the older parts of London are said by Evelyn to have been built of its timber, which has the character of keeping off insects, spiders, . It is good for mill and water works, besides affording excellent stakes for palisades, and props for vines and hops. The timber is extensively used in America, especially for the inside finishing of houses, furniture, . Called also the Spanish Chestnut.