DECIDUOUS TREES. 



339 



FIG. 108. 



dence. For wide avenues its more formal character and narrower 

 head make it quite inferior to our weep- 

 ing elm, but it has the advantage of that 

 sylvan queen of being less liable to 

 injury by worms. 



The rate of growth of the European 

 horse-chestnut is about the same as that 

 of the sugar maple, and half that of the 

 weeping or white elm. Our native sorts, 

 the buckeyes, are of slower growth and 

 smaller size. In England there are trees 

 from eighty to one hundred feet high, 

 and others of equal diameter of head, 

 but in general it is somewhat inferior 

 in size at maturity to the great oaks 

 and chestnuts ; sixty feet in height, and 



fifty feet diameter, being about its average development at ma- 

 turity. The vignette, Fig. 106, represents the common form of a 

 full-grown tree, Fig. 107 its leaves, and Fig. 108 the form of a 

 thrifty tree of twelve years' growth. 



THE DOUBLE WHITE-FLOWERING HORSE-CHESTNUT, ^. h. 

 flore plena, is a superb variety, with double flowers, in larger spikes 

 than those of the common sort, and set with equal or greater 

 abundance on the tree. It is in full bloom in June, two weeks 

 later than the common sort The form of the tree is higher in 

 proportion to its diameter than the latter, the height being nearly 

 double the breadth, and more square in outline. Ellwanger and 

 Barry, at Rochester, have a noble young specimen about forty 

 feet high, which, in the blossoming season, is like a verdant tower 

 spangled all over with hyacinthine bouquets. It is in all respects 

 an exquisite lawn tree, and one of the thriftiest of the species. 



THE RED-FLOWERING HORSE-CHESTNUT. ^E. h. rubicunda 

 This tree is of less vigorous growth than the preceding, and of 

 more globular form. It blooms at the same time, and the high 

 color of its flowers makes it one of the most showy of trees in 

 the blossoming season. 



