HIPPOCASTANACEAE 175 



from Quebec to Minnesota and south to South Carolina and 

 Kansas. In Illinois, it grows from the northern boundary to 

 the southern and from the eastern to the western, and one 

 may expect to encounter it wherever suitable habitats occur, 

 with the single exception that there are no records of its occur- 

 rence in the extreme northwestern corner of the state. 



HIPPOCASTANACEAE 



The Buckeye Family 



The buckeye family consists of shrubs or trees which bear 

 alternate, palmately compound leaves without stipules, and 

 racemes or panicles of irregular, showy, polygamous flowers. 

 The tubular to bell-shaped calyx is 5-lobed, and there are 4 or 

 5 unequal petals and 5 to 9 stamens. The 3 pistils are united 

 into a 3-celled ovary which develops into a leathery, smooth or 

 prickly capsule containing a single large seed. 



The 2 genera in this family number about 20 species, natives 

 of Asia, North America and Mexico. Only the following genus 

 is represented in Illinois. 



AESCULUS Linnaeus 

 Buckeye Horsechestnut 



The buckeyes are deciduous trees or shrubs with rather 

 coarse branches bearing large winter buds and long-petioled, 

 digitately compound leaves, the leaflets of which are serrate. 

 Showy flowers are borne in upright, many-flowered panicles. 

 The calyx is bell-shaped to tubular and 4- or 5-lobed, and there 

 are 4 or 5 petals with long claws. There are 5 to 9 stamens, 

 and the 3-celled, superior ovary develops into a 1 -celled, leathery 

 capsule, containing usually 1 very large seed marked with a 

 round, whitish scar that gives rise to the name buckeye. 



There are about 25 species of buckeye or horsechestnut 

 native in eastern Asia, southeastern Europe, and North 

 America. In all species the bark is bitter and astringent, and 

 the seeds contain a glucoside, aesculin, that is poisonous to 

 animals and man. Heat inactivates the poison, however, and 

 the seed can be used as food after being thoroughly roasted. 

 For the most part the buckeyes are trees, but the following 

 species grows as a shrub in Illinois. 



