340 



DECIDUOUS TREES. 



THE SCARLET-FLOWERING HORSE-CHESTNUT, AL. h. coctinea, 

 is a variety of the rubicunda, said to have more brilliantly colored 

 flowers. Sargent mentions it as the most striking floral tree of the 

 season. It blooms when quite young. 



THE VARIEGATED-LEAVED HORSE-CHESTNUT, &. h. aurea, is a 

 variety little commended ; the variegation not remaining a bright 

 and healthy color throughout the season, though it gives the tree a 

 pleasing warm tone in the spring. 



THE CUT-LEAVED HORSE-CHESTNUT, ^E. h. ladanata, is remark- 

 able solely for the very curious shred-like character of its leaves. 



THE DWARF DOUBLE-FLOWERING HORSE-CHESTNUT, ./. h. 

 nana flore plena, is a variety with large leaves and compact head, 

 which is said to grow only eight to ten feet high, and promises to 

 be an interesting shrub. 



FIG. 109. 



THE BIG, OR OHIO BUCKEYE, OR YELLOW HORSE-CHESTNUT. 

 Pavia flava or ^Esculus flava. This fine 

 native tree in some portions of the west is 

 the special herald of summer. Its sudden 

 and early bursting into full leaf makes it, 

 in spring, the most observed of trees, be- 

 ing even earlier than the European sort. 

 It is found wild on the banks of most 

 western streams, and there, among forest 

 trees, it sometimes attains a height of sixty 

 to eighty feet. In open ground its form is 

 very rigid, and it forms a globular head 

 from twenty to forty feet in height. Fig. 

 109 is a specimen of the buckeye growing 

 in an English park. Both the blossom 

 spikes and the blossoms are smaller than 



on the European species, and of a greenish yellow color that renders 

 them less conspicuous. The leaves drop long before those of 

 most other trees ; even before those of the European horse-chest- 



