Trees, Shrubs and Vines 



in the scale. The leaf is of peculiar shape, with the 

 middle lobe quite tapering, and the large numerous pods 

 remain through the winter. Whether it be the beloved 

 flower of olden Jewish times or not, it is pleasant to 

 think so, and its probable origin in Syria whence its 

 botanical name syriacus makes it at least plausible. It 

 is the last large and brilliant flower of the season, except 

 the late sporadic blossoms of the Japanese quince, and 

 fades with the incoming of October, a landscape shrub 

 of great beauty, and doubly effective from its period of 

 bloom. 



The palmate type of leaf is the rarest of all, so that 

 when one sees the dwarf horse-chestnut for the first 

 time, he confidently pronounces it a species of the 

 ^Esculus group ; but on looking at the very slender spikes 

 of flowers, a foot long, generally white, thickly covering 

 the bush in July, the difference from the horse-chestnut 

 creates a little doubt ; yet the flower is essentially the 

 same, only a variation in the mode of clustering, one of 

 those incidental circumstances that produce variety with 

 little or no organic difference. As a writer has well 

 said, nature is very sparing in fundamental types, but 

 lavish in variations. As it spreads quite rapidly and 

 tends to form a large clump, it is hardly a feasible plant 

 for small grounds, whereas under suitable conditions it 

 is desirable. Two clumps of it are in the "Ramble," 

 one near the north end of the " Bow-Bridge/ 1 the other 

 farther to the east, near the cluster of magnolias. Indig- 

 enous only in the Southern States, it proves quite hardy 

 in the North, and is not fastidious as to the kind of soil. 

 A kindred species, the red buckeye, also of the Southern 



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