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Article: How the horse chestnut conkered Britain
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- October 8, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1996 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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It is sometimes pointed out to the British that they have
wonderful things growing wild which they completely ignore. We read
about French chefs combing our woods for rare fungi. We see
fishermen catching langoustines and spider crabs to be exported to
places where they like eating these things better than we do. The
Romans introduced the sweet chestnut tree into Britain 2,000 years
ago, and we are still not particularly grateful for its fruit.
But there is one thing we harvest and use which the continentals
never harvest and use, and that is the fruit of the horse chestnut.
Yes, I mean conkers.
We, and we alone in the world, have devised a use for conkers.
Nowhere else in the world do ...