DECIDUOUS ORNAMENTAL TREES. 183 



flowers, and all, is completed in about three or four weeks. 

 When the leaves first unfold, they are clothed with a 

 copious cotton-like down, which falls off when they have 

 attained their full size and development. 



The growth of the Horse-chestnut is slow for a soft- 

 wooded tree, when the trees are young ; after five or six 

 years, however, it advances with more rapidity, and in 

 twenty years forms a beautiful and massy tree. It prefers 

 a strong, rich, loamy soil, and is easily raised from the large 

 nuts, which are produced in great abundance. 



There are several species of Horse-chestnut, but the 

 common one (JEsculus Hippocastanwn) is incomparably 

 the finest. The American sorts ai'e the following : {/Es- 

 culus Oliioensis) or Ohio Buckeye, as it is called in the 

 western states ; a small sized tree, with palmated leaves 

 consisting of Jive leaflets, and pretty, bright yellow flowers, 

 with red stamens. The fruit is about half the size of the 

 exotic species. The Red-flowered Horse-chestnut (y^scu- 

 lus ruhicunda) is a small tree with scarlet flowers ; and the 

 Smooth-leaved (^. glabra) has pale yellow flowers. All 

 the foregoing have prickly fruit. Besides these are two 

 small Horse-chestnuts with smooth fruit, which thence 

 properly belong to the genus Pavia, viz. the Yellow-flow- 

 ered Pavia (P. lutea) of Virginia and the southern states ; 

 and the Red-flowered {P. rubra), with pretty clusters of 

 reddish flowers ; both these have leaves resembling those 

 of the Horse-chestnut, except in being divided into five 

 leaflets, instead of seven. There are some other species, 

 which are, however, rather shrubs than trees. 



