Description of a beautiful Tree. '2'69 



light and palniated appearance. The flowers, in which the 

 tree was profuse, demand our deep admiration and attention : 

 each group of them rose perpendicularly from the end of the 

 young shoot, and was in length 14 in., like a gigantic hya- 

 cinth, and quite as beautiful, spiked to a point, exhibiting a 

 cone or pyramid of flowers, widely separate on all sides, and 

 all expanded together, principally white, finely tinted with 

 various colours, as red, pink, yellow, and buff, the stamina 

 forming a most elegant fringe amid the modest tints of the 

 large and copious petals. These feathery blossoms, lovely in 

 colours and stately in shape, stood upright on every branch 

 all over the tree, like flowery minarets on innumerable verdant 

 turrets. We had thus the opportunity of ascertaining that it 

 belonged to that class of Linnaeus consisting entirely of rare 

 plants, the Heptandria, and the order Monogynia ; the natural 

 order Trihilatse; and the A'cera of Jussieu. 



The natives informed us that the fruit ripens early in 

 autumn, and consists of bunches of apples, thinly beset with 

 sharp thorns, each when broken producing one or two large 

 kernels, about 2 in. in circumference, of the finest bright ma- 

 hogany colour without, and white within ; that the tree is 

 deciduous, and just before its fall changes to the finest tints of 

 red, yellow, orange, and brown. When divested of its luxu- 

 riant foliage, the buds of the next year appear like little 

 spears, which through the winter are covered with a fine 

 glutinous gum, evidently designed to protect the embryo 

 shoots within, as an hybernaculum, from the severe frosts of 

 the climate, and which glisten in the cold sunshine like dia- 

 monds. It has the strange property of performing the whole 

 of its vigorous shoot, nearly a yard long, in the short space 

 of three weeks, employing all the rest of the year in convert- 

 ing it into wood, adding to its strength, and varying its beauty. 

 The wood when sawn is of the finest snowy whiteness. The 

 tree is easily raised ; indifferent as to soil, climate, or situation ; 

 removed with safety, of quick growth, thrives to a vast age 

 and size ; subject to no blight or disease ; in the earliest spring 

 bursting its immense buds into that vigour, exuberance, and 

 beauty, which we have here feebly attempted to describe. 

 The natives said it was originally brought from the east of 

 Asia, but grows freely in any climate, and in their tongue its 

 name is designated by a combination of three words, signifying 

 separately, a noble animal, an elegant game, and a luscious 

 kernel. Had Linnaeus seen this tree, he would have assuredly 

 contemplated it with delightful ecstasy, and named it the 

 ./^sculus Hippocastanum. 



Westfelton, near Shrewsbury^ John F. M. Dovaston. 



4pn7l. 1830. 



