lO 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



AMERICAN FOREST TREES. 



Buckeye. 



JEscitlus octandra — Marsb. 

 ^sculus jtava — Alt 



Buckeye flourishes from Allcgheuj' county, 

 Pennsylvania, southward along the Alle- 

 ijheny mountains to northern Georgia and 

 Alabama, westward along the valley of the 

 Ohio river to soutliern Iowa, through In- 

 dian territory and the valley of the 

 Brazos river iu eastern Texas. It 

 thrives best along streams and in 

 dense, rich woods. It reaches its 

 fullest develo[)nient on the slopes of 

 the Allegheny mountains in North 

 Carolina and Tennessee. 



The variety JEsculus octandra is 

 known by the name of buckeye in 

 \orth Carolina, South Carolina, 

 Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, 

 Texas and Kentucky. It is called 

 sweet buckeye in West Virginia, 

 Alississippi, Texas, Missouri and In- 

 diana, probably owing to the fact 

 that it does not exhale the disa- 

 greeable odor characteristic of 

 other members of the soajiberry 

 family. Yellow buckeye is the term 

 applied to it in South Carolina and 

 Alabama; large buckeye in Tenn- 

 essee; big buckeye in Tennessee 

 and Texas. The name buckeye 

 itself, was undoubtedly given to 

 the tree for the reason that when 

 the pale husk surrounding the dark 

 brown fruit has cracked open, 

 showing the ripe nut, the whole 

 has the appearance of the eye of a 

 deer. This species should not be 

 confused with ^sculus glabra, Ohio 

 or fetid buckeye. 



The leaves of the buckeye are' 

 compound and opposite, being com- 

 posed of five or seven long, narrow 

 leaflets, four to six inches long, 

 which taper to a point at the apex 

 and at the base. They are sharply, 

 but finely and evenly, serrate; 

 somewhat downy on the under side 

 along the ribs, but glabrous above. 

 The leaves are sometimes shed as 

 early as September. 



The tiny branchlets are saffron 

 colored when young, growing darker 

 with age. The bark is dark brown, 

 cracking open into thin sections. ,... 



The flowers are dull yellow and 

 grow on short stems, in large full 

 clusters. The calyx is oblong and five- 

 pointed. The corolla consists of five petals, 

 the lateral ones being long and rounded. 

 The stamens are short. Buckeye blossoms 

 in April, May or June. 



The fruit is a large brown nut, one or two 

 of which are enclosed in a rough, uneven 

 husk, about two inches or more in diameter. 



The tree grows from forty to a hundred 



TWENTY-THIRD FAFEB. 



anil thirty feet in height, and attains a 

 diameter of from one to three and a half 

 feet. The beautiful specimen wliich is 

 herewith pictured grew in Sevier county, 

 Tennessee, in the lower Appalachian range, 

 where the buckeye reaches its maximum de- 

 velopment. It is forty inclies in diameter, 

 seventv feet to the first limb and a hundred 



■ir.\r. iti'cKroYE fiitoWTii. T.nwKi! .\n'Ai,.\<ii 



UA.NIJIC, TKN-NKSSi:!;. 



and thirty feet iu height. 



Of the general appearance of the ticc, 

 Alice Lounsberry says: "In tlie outline of 

 the buckeyes there is sometliing [larticn- 

 larly compact and well-regulated, and their 

 symmetrical leaves cling together as though 

 to shut out the intrusion of other ideas tluui 

 their own. We can hardly fancy the boughs 

 of these trees waving |)oetically; tlu'y are 



much too conventional. * * * It is a 

 li.mdsome and shapely tree and appears well 

 in cultivation. In the early spring when it 

 is covered with its j'ellow flowers, it seems 

 to have suddenly become quite frivolous. 

 In the southwest the tree is hardly more 

 tlmn a shrub." 

 The wood is light, soft, close-grained, com- 

 pact and difficult to split. The 

 heartwood is creamy white, and the 

 sapwood so similar that it is not 

 easily distinguished. The medullary 

 rays are numerous but obscure. A 

 cubic foot of seasoned wood weighs 

 i;(5.64 " pounds. It decays rapidly 

 when exposed to the weather. 



Commercialiy buckeye is valuable 

 in making artificial limbs, wooden- 

 ware, kitchen utensils, and paper 

 pulp. 



Buckeye is one of thirteen spe- 

 cies of the genus ^.wuUi.i; horse 

 chestnut, ^scuJus Hippocnstunnm, 

 is a closely allied variety. It orig- 

 inated in the mountains of north- 

 ern Greece, but has been cultivated 

 in Europe for several hundred 

 years, and is now common in the 

 United States. The name buck- 

 eye is usually applied to such spe- 

 cies as are natives of North Amer- 

 ica. The wood of horse chestnut 

 and buckeye is very similar. 



Buckeye grows intermingled with 

 poplar, oak, maple, beech and a va- 

 riety of other h.'irdvvoods. From its 

 comparatively limited growth as 

 compared with the totality of the 

 average hardwood forest, it never 

 has been recognized, and probably 

 never will be, as a distinctive type 

 of American commercial wood. The 

 timber is felled witli the other val- 

 uable trees surrounding it, and its 

 appearance, when manufactured 

 into lumber, in its general charac- 

 teristics is so similar to that of the 

 sap of poplar or whitewood that al- 

 most without exception it is as- 

 sorted with poplar saps, and goes 

 on the market masipierading as 

 tliat wood. Tlu'ro is jirobably not 

 one Iiimlierm.'in in a thousand, 

 liandling poplar, that is able to dis- 

 tinguish buckeye from sap poj lar 

 in his shipments "I' lliat wood. 

 There is another variety of fim- 

 lii 1 growth, found in the same altitude, that 

 also forms ])art of the general commercial 

 iiulpiit of sap poplar. That wood is cucum- 

 ber, whieli will be dcn'ribed in a liitini' .■irticle 

 in the Hakdwuou Hixohu. 



There is still another wood of considerable 

 in\|iortance, at least in quantity of growth, 

 th;it also is often mixed with poplar. This 

 is black gum. and it goes on the nnirket with 

 common and ( nil pojilar. 



