166 ^SCULUS 



^ESCULUS. HORSE-CHESTNUT, BUCKEYE. SAPINDACE^. 



Deciduous trees and large shrubs found in all the three northern 

 continents. Leaves opposite, composed normally of five or seven leaflets 

 (occasionally three or nine) radiating from the end of a long, slender 

 stalk. Flowers borne in often large panicles at the end of the current 

 season's growth; petals four or five. Fruits sometimes prickly, sometimes 

 smooth, containing one or two large seeds. Several of the following 

 species are commonly known under the generic name of PAVIA, the 

 distinguishing characters being smooth fruits and four petals, as contrasted 

 with the prickly fruits and five petals of true .'EscuLUS. As in neither 

 case are the characters invariably coexistent, the name Pavia has been 

 dropped. 



Few groups of woody plants are at once so well-marked and so hand- 

 some as this. They all thrive well in the southern half of England, and 

 most are hardy enough to succeed in any part of the country. All of 

 them like a good deep soil, well-drained but moist, and are easy to 

 cultivate and transplant. For the multiplication of the species seeds are 

 decidedly the best, but the hybrids and varieties of garden origin have 

 to be propagated by budding. The common horse-chestnut is commonly 

 used as a stock for all the species, even such a small one as JE. Pavia, the 

 result of which is an ungainly union of stock and scion and frequent ill- 

 health. It may be used for JE. carnea (although that comes largely true 

 from seed), and for its own numerous varieties, but for the other and 

 smaller hybrids JE. flava or JE. glabra should be used as a stock. It 

 should be mentioned that the buds selected are not those in the axils of the 

 leaves, but the small, crowded buds at the base of the shoot nearest the 

 old wood, which in ordinary circumstances remain dormant. Seeds of 

 all the species should be planted as soon as they fall, and it is necessary 

 to cover them only with about their own depth of soil. Kept dry in the 

 ordinary seed-room during the winter, they lose much or sometimes all 

 of their vitality. 



JE. AUSTRINA, Small. SOUTHERN BUCKEYE. 



A shrub 10 to 12 ft. high, the young shoots clothed with a fine down. Leaves 

 three-, five-, or seven-foliolate ; leaflets 2 to 3^ ins. long, I to i| ins. wide ; 

 oval or obovate, toothed, tapered at the base, narrowed rather abruptly at the 

 apex to a short, slender point (lateral leaflets oblique at the base) ; rich lustrous 

 green above, covered beneath with a thick pale down ; stalk downy, about 

 3 ins. long. Flowers about I in. long, red, produced in a panicle 6 to 8 ins. 

 long, 2 to 3 ins. wide ; calyx tubular, ^ in. long, with rounded teeth ; petals 

 slightly glandular. 



Native of the S.E. United States ; probably long in cultivation as AL. Pavia 

 (^.T/.), which it resembles and to which it is allied, but from which, nevertheless, 

 it is very distinct in the white down covering the leaf beneath, and in the 

 usually shorter calyx. The seeds also, Prof. Sargent informs me, are distinct 

 from those of any other species, but I have not seen them. (One of the Pavia 

 group.) 



