i^sculus 223 



iESCULUS GLABRA, Ohio Buckeye 



^sculus glabra, Willdenow, Enum. PL Hort. Berol. 405 (1809); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. i. 467 

 (1838), Sargent, Silva N. America, ii. 55, tt. 67, 68 (1892), Man. Trees N. America, 644 



('905)- 

 yEsculus pallida, Willdenow, loc. cit. 406 (1809). 



A tree attaining 70 feet in height and 6 feet in girth in America. Bark dark 

 brown and scaly, becoming in old trees f inch thick, ashy-grey, densely furrowed and 

 broken into thick plates roughened on the surface by numerous small scales. Leaves 

 with long slender stalks; leaflets five, oval or obovate-cuneate, long -acuminate, 

 finely serrate in margin, with tufts of hairs in the bases of the serrations, glabrous 

 underneath except for a few hairs along the midrib and tufts in the axils ; petiolules 

 short. Terminal leaflet with about fifteen pairs of nerves. Flowers in pubescent 

 panicles, 5 to 6 inches long ; calyx campanulate ; petals four, pale yellow ; claws 

 shorter than the calyx ; limbs twice as long as the claws, broadly ovate or oblong 

 in the lateral pair, oblong -spathulate, much narrower and sometimes red-striped 

 in the upper pair. Stamens usually seven, long, exserted, pubescent. Ovary 

 pubescent. Fruit ovate or obovate, brown, i to 2 inches long, roughened by prickles. 



The species is distinguished in summer by the glabrous leaves, which always 

 show some cilia in the bases of the serrations. In winter the following characters of 

 the twigs and buds may be recognised : Twigs glabrous, shining, with orange- 

 coloured lenticels. Leaf-scars slightly oblique on obscure leaf-cushions, crescentic or 

 semicircular, with three groups of bundle-dots, the opposite scars wide apart and 

 often not joined by any linear ridge. Pith large, circular, greenish. Buds not 

 viscid ; terminal much larger than the lateral, the latter arising from the twig at an 

 angle of 45; ovoid, acuminate ; scales keeled on the back, ciliate in margin, 

 acuminate, the pointed tips being raised outwardly, dark brown. 



Van Buckleyi, Sargent {^sculus arguta, Buckley, Proc. Acad. Phil, i860, p. 

 448), is a geographical form, occurring in Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, and Texas, 

 and characterised by six to seven leaflets, which are sharply and unequally serrate. 



No well-marked horticultural varieties are known. 



The type occurs in alluvial soil in Atlantic North America, from Pennsylvania 

 to N. Alabama, and westward to S. Iowa, Central Kansas, Indian Territory, and S. 

 Nebraska. Sargent says that it is nowhere very common and from an ornamental 

 point of view very inferior to ^sculus octandra. 



This species was introduced, according to Loudon, in 18 12, but appears to be 

 very rare in this country. At Devonshurst, Chiswick, a tree cut down in 1905 

 was 60 feet in height by 6 feet in girth, but though the tree probably exists in 

 some nurseries and old gardens, where it is mistaken for Aisculus octandra, 

 more commonly than is supposed, we cannot mention any which are remarkable. 



(A. H.) 



