Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/846

 828 HORSE HOESE CHESTNUT and America. The Tartar horses are small, but hardy, accustomed to inclemencies of weather and scarcity of food, performing long journeys with great speed. The Persian horse is descended from the Arab, but is inferior in speed and less enduring; it was brought to English Eace Horse. England in the reign of Elizabeth, and by its cross produced an excellent breed. The Span- ish breed, derived from the horse of Barbary, long enjoyed the highest reputation in Europe both for civil and military purposes ; but they have now much degenerated from want of care. The Turkish horses have many charac- teristics of the Arab, from which they are de- scended. The horses of Germany and France have been modified by all the above breeds, and are very hardy ; the Dutch breed are very large, and excellent for draught. The English have paid the most attention to the breeding of horses, and have surpassed all other nations in the quality of speed; the English racer is unequalled for quickness and endurance, in which respects he exceeds the best horses of the original oriental stock. America has taken advantage of the best breeds of the old world, and can compare favorably with any country ; her trotting horses have no superiors in their peculiar gait. The race horse is the product of the Arabian with the native English breed, com- menced by James I., improved by Charles II., who imported barbs and Turkish stallions, and crossed by the Darley and Godolphin Arabian. Crossing the thoroughbred with cold-blooded mares produces the more strong-limbed varie- ties used as carriage horses, roadsters, chargers, and cavalry horses. Another race is seen in the different kinds of dray horses, remarkable for strength, intelligence, and docility. There is no doubt that the horse was unknown to the natives of America at the time of its discovery by Europeans, and it is certain also that the an- imal inhabited this country during the postplio- cene period, contemporaneously with the mas- todon and megalonyx ; its fossil remains, chief- ly molar teeth, have been so frequently found, especially in the southern and western states and in South America, and have been so care- fully examined by competent palaeontologists, that no doubt can remain of the former exist- ence of the horse in the western world. The E. neogwm (Lund) and E. major (De Kay), two species of the closely allied genus hipparion, and one of hippotherium, indicate that the equine family were well represented in America in former geological periods ; whether this an- cient horse, of about the same size as the re- cent one, and distinguished by the usually more complex folds of the enamel of the molars, be- came entirely extinct before the appearance of man, may admit of question. Prof. Leidy says there is no room to doubt the former exist- ence of the horse on the American continent, at the same time with the mastodon, and that "man probably was his companion." The fossil horse has also been found in the old world, in the pliocene of Europe with ' the mastodon and tapir and through all the diluvial period, and in the upper tertiary of Asia ; there are two or three species described in Europe, and as many in Asia. From this it appears that the horse inhabited the old world as well as the new before the advent of man ; and some of these antediluvian species may have become extinct, while others persisted in a declining condition during the early part of the human epoch. (See HIPPAEION.) HORSE CHESTNUT (cesculus, Linn.), a tree of the natural order sapindacece, comprising about a dozen species, of which the most common and best known is ^fi. hippocastanum (Linn.), a handsome tree, with broad, digitate leaves, Common Horse Chestnut (JSsculus hippocastanum). and large and showy spikes of white flowers, spotted with crimson and yellow, solely culti- vated for ornamenting parks and streets, its wood being soft and of little value. The buds are remarkably large, and covered with a gummy varnish ; the shoots push from them