

50 



appear. The leaves are digitated, i.e., shaped lilce 

 an open hand, and there are seven on a petiole, 

 some of them as much as a foot long. In May, 

 the flowers, which are white, variegated with red 

 and yellow, begin to expand, and form a mag- 

 nificent spectacle when in full development, the 

 tree being then seen " in all the richness of its 

 " heavy velvet drapery, embroidered over with 

 " millions of silver flowers." Conspicuous blossoms 

 are so rarel}' met with in our English trees, that 

 we can all the more appreciate the horse-chesnut, 

 the laburnum, and the acacia. 



The rapid effects of climatic variations upon 

 plant life are strikingly exemplified in the case 

 of the horse-chesnut. As Mr. Ruskin remarks: — 

 " A group of trees changes the colour of its 



&^ 



" leafage from week to week and its position 

 " from day to day: it is sometimes languid with 

 " heat, and sometimes hea\y with rain." 



The wood of the horse-chesnut is white and 

 soft, and of no value as timber. The tree does 

 not often attain a height of more than seventy 

 or eighty feet, and seldom an age of more than 

 two hundred years. 



y-E. /;. nibiciiiida, the scarlet-flowering horse- 

 chesnut, is the most ornamental and generally 

 cultivated variety, but although it is a showy 

 dwarf tree, it bears no comparison with its white 

 flowering relative. 



