M S C 



iESC 



And the sixth has an annual root. The 

 Stem is from one to two feet in height ; some- 

 times, but rarely, reaching three feet ; it seldom 

 stands upright, but is subdivided, round, and 

 somewhat hirsute, delicate and slender. The 

 branches are filiform, patulous, round, streaked, 

 hirsute. The hairs ferruginous at the base. 

 The leaves pinnate, alternate: leaflets sessile, 

 alternate, minute, sickle-shaped, serrulate, 

 three-nerved beneath, smooth on both sides. 

 The petioles thicker at the base, round, hirsute. 

 The stipules sickle-shaped above and below the 

 petiole, opposite, acuminate, somewhat hirsute. 

 The peduncles longer than the leaves, axillary, 

 solitary, and erect. The flowers are pedicelled, 

 alternate, whitish, or brownish yellow. The 

 bractea? sessile, ovate-acuminate, serrate, streaked 

 end hirsute at the edge. The cup has the upper 

 lip serrate at the tip or bluntly three-toothed, 

 and pubescent at the edge. The corolla, banner- 

 streaked ; wings obovate ; keel ovate, sickle- 

 shaped, upright and bifid. The legume almost 

 upright, pendulous, margined, wrinkled and 

 pubescent, linear-oblong, compressed, straight 

 at the suture next the seeds, lobed and crenate 

 on the other suture : joints six or seven, semi- 

 orbiculate, gibbous in the middle, compressed 

 at the edge, separating spontaneously. The 

 seeds are crescenl-kidney-shaped, turgidly len- 

 ticular, smooth, shining and black. 



This species is said to be somewhat sensitive ; 

 and during the night, or at the approach of rain, 

 the leaves fold together in some degree. It is a 

 native of the West Indies. 



Culture. — The propagation of these plants 

 may be accomplished by sowing the ripe seed on 

 a moderate hot-bed, about the latter end of 

 March or beginning of April; and when the plants 

 have advanced to the height of two or three 

 inches, and are become sufficiently stronsr, they 

 must be transplanted out separately into small 

 pots filled with light earth, and be immediately 

 plunged into a new hot-bed, in order to promote 

 their growth more effectually . Afterwards, as 

 they advance in size, they should be carefully 

 removed into larger pots : much attention is, 

 however, necessary not to overpot them, as 

 where this is the case the plants seldom thrive 

 well. 



The first species being tender requires conside- 

 rable attention, in order to preserve it during the 

 winter in this climate, by raising and keeping it 

 in the hot-bed and stove bark-bed in the manner 

 directed above ; in which treatment it may be 

 preserved in the winter, and afford flowers in the 

 ensuing summer months. 



The second, third and fourth sorts also de- 

 mand a similar protection in the stove bark-bed 



in the winter season ; by which means they are 

 made to flower more early in the succeeding sum- 

 mer, and the seeds become ripe in the autumn. 

 And as their stems are of a succulent nature, they 

 should be kept rather dry during the cold moist 

 winter months, in order to prevent their root* 

 from rotting. In this intention it is advised to put 

 them into the bark -bed instead of the dry stove, as 

 in the latter case, from the root-fibres becoming 

 drv, the plants soon droop for want of moisture ; 

 and if it be supplied in that situation, the plants are 

 quickly destroved by the decaying of their roots. 



The fifth and sixth species, from their being 

 annual plants, require to be brought forward 

 early in the year, in the same manner as the first 

 kind, as where that is not the case they seldom 

 perfect their seed. 



These plants afford an agreeable and pleasing 

 variety in stove and greenhouse collections. 



tESCULUS, the Horse Chesnut Tree, a ge- 

 nus comprising several hardy trees of the deci- 

 duous kind, employed for the purpose of orna-* 

 ment. 



It belongs to the class and order of Heptandria 

 Monosynia, and ranks in the natural order of 

 Trihikttce. 



Its characters are : that the calyx is a one- 

 leafed, ventricosc, small and five-toothed peri- 

 anthium : the corolla consists of five roundish 

 petals, plaited and waving about the edge, flat, 

 spreading, with narrow claws inserted into the 

 calyx, and irregularly coloured: the stamina have 

 subulate, declining filaments, of the length of 

 the corolla, and ascending anthers : the pistilluni 

 is a roundish germ, ending in a subulate style; 

 the stigma acuminated : the pericarpium is a 

 leathery, roundish, three-celled, three-valved 

 capsule : the seeds are two, and subglobular. 



The species are : \.JE. Hippocastamrm, Com- 

 mon Horse Chesnut: 2. JE. Jtara, Yellow- 

 flowered Horse Chesnut : 3. JE. pavia, Scarlet' 

 Horse Chesnut. 



The first, or Common Horse Chesnut Tree, is 

 sufficiently known by the beautiful parabolic 

 form in which the branches are disposed, when 

 it stands single ; by its digitate leaves, which are 

 composed of seven leaflets, serrate about the 

 edge, the middle one largest, the outer ones 

 smallest ; and by its handsome, upright, pyra- 

 midal thyrse of white flowers, variegated with 

 yellow or red towards the centre. Some of them 

 towards the top of the thyrse being imperfect 

 and abortive, they come out soon in the spring. 

 The capsule, or nut as it is often termed, ~is 

 divided internally into three cells according t» 

 some, but into two only, as others assert. 



In this climate it rise's to the height of fifty or 



sixty feet or more; and its leaves, which are 1 



D 



are large 



