jEscuIiis /lava, 

 THE LARGE BUCKEYE. 



Synonymcs. 



SAiTON, Hortus Kcwensis. 

 ToRREY AND Gray, Flora of North Amenca. 

 MiciiAux, North Ainurican Sylva. 



IDe Candolle, Prodroinus. 

 Don, Miller's Dictionary. 

 Loudon, Arboretum Bnlannicum. 

 France. 

 Germanv. 

 Italy. 

 Britain. 



United States. 



^sculus Jiava, 

 Pavia lutta, 



Pavia fava, 



Pavie a flcurs jaunes, 

 Gellx; Rosskastanie, 

 Tavia gialla, Marrone cVIndia gialla, 

 Yellow Pavia, 



Large Buckeye, Big Buckeye, Sweet 

 Buckeye, 



Engravings. Michaux, North American Sylva, pi. 91 ; Loudon, Arljoretum Brllannicum, v., pi. 55; and the figures Ijelow 



Specific Characters. Petioles pubescent, flattish towards the tip. Leaflets 57, pubescent beneath, and 

 above upon the nerves. De Candolle, Prodromus. 



Description. 



lS?^^^HE Large Buckeye, in fa- 

 IrA HP i^ vourable situations, some- 

 ^^ [] K times attains an elevation 

 __. .. fel&^ pf seventy or eighty feet, 

 with a trunk three or four feet in diameter ; but 

 in the southern states it often dwindles down to 

 a small shrub, not more than four or five feet 

 in height. The leaves are much paler than 

 those of the iEsculus pavia, are lanceolate, 

 pointed at the summit, serrate, slightly fur- 

 rowed, and pubescent. The flowers, which ]]^^ 

 appear in April and May, are of a light, agree- ^ 

 able yellow, and are disposed in upright 

 bunches at the ends of the shoots of the same 

 season. The fruit is contained in a fleshy, 

 oval capsule, about two inches in diameter, 

 which is often gibbous, and the surface of 

 which, unlike that of the common horse-ches- 

 nut, is smooth. Each capsule contains two 



seeds or nuts, of an equal size, flat upon one side and convex on the other. 

 They are larger, and lighter coloured than those of the common horse-chesnut, 

 and, like them, unfit to eat. 



Variety. M. f. aurantia. Orange-coloured-flowered Large Buckeye. This 

 variety differs from the species in the deep-orange and yellow hue of its flowers, 

 in its smooth, irregularly-toothed leaves, and more acute divisions of the calyx. 

 It grows in the vicinity of Cincinnati, Ohio. 



Geography and History. The natural habitat of the .^sculus flava is near 

 the large rivers in the western states, and along the Alleghanies, from the thirty- 

 ninth degree of latitude, in Virginia, to their termination in Georgia. It may be 

 considered as a stranger, east of these mountains, with the exception of a tract 

 thirty or forty miles wide, situated, as it were, beneath their shadow 



