THE HORSE-CHESTNUTS OR BUCKEYE& %K 



Tlie fruit, about two inches or more in diameter, has 

 an uneven but not a prickly surface. The nut, one 

 or two in a husk, is about an inch or more broad. 

 The wood is light and strong, and is sometimes used 

 for making kitchen utensils. 



The purple sweet buckeye, JEscuh/.s <f<jmdra y \ ar. 

 hyhrida (also called JEscuImb fla/oa^ var. / pwrjywra%- 

 cens) has ruddy-colored or dull-purplish flowers, and 

 leaflets which are very downy beneath. Its bark is 

 lighter colored. 



The red buckeye (jEscuZus Paciii) is little more 

 than a shrub, but it occasionally grows to a height of 

 25 feet.* It has large clusters of bright-red floweis 

 (which bloom in May), and generally smooth leav< s. 

 This tree grows wild in the fertile valleys of Virginia 

 and southward. It extends westward to Missouri. + 



the lateral petals are long, narrow, and roundish at the 

 ends. • 



* The largest tree of this species in this country is in the gar- 

 den of Mr. Landreth, of Philadelphia; it is 25 feet high, and has 

 a trunk circumference of three feet and three quarters. — Trees 

 and Tree-Plantin<i, J. S. Brisbin. 



f In the Carolinas its saponiferous roots arc used as a substi- 

 tute for soap, and its bruised branches and bark are used to 

 stupefy fish in small ponds.— Trees and Tree-Planiiny, J. >. 

 Brisbin. 



