jESCULUS 173 



AL. PARVIFLORA, Walter. SHRUBBY PAVIA. DWARF BUCKEYE. 



(y. macrostachya, Michaux, Bot. Mag., t. 2118 ; Pavia macros!., Loiseleur.') 



A shrub 8 to 12 ft. high, usually broader than it is high, consisting of a 

 crowd of slender stems, and spreading by means of sucker-growths at the base. 

 Rarely it forms a single trunk, and thus becomes a small tree. Leaves 

 usually consisting of five, but sometimes seven, leaflets ; each leaflet from 3 

 to 9 ins. long, and ij to 4 ins. wide, obovate, tapering towards both ends, 

 shallowly round-toothed, covered densely beneath with greyish down. Panicles 

 cylindrical, erect, 8 to 12 ins. long, 4 ins. wide from the tips of the stamens. 

 Flowers white ; petals normally four, in. long, the stamens thread-like and 

 pinkish white, standing out fully an inch beyond them ; anthers red. Fruit 

 smooth. 



Native of the S.E. United States; introduced by John Fraser in 1785. 

 There are few shrubs about which more could be said in favour than this. It 

 flowers freely in late July and August, at a time when few shrubs are in flower. 

 It is of neat,'yet graceful habit, and it has a hardy, vigorous constitution. No 

 better plant could be recommended as a lawn shrub, especially for places that 

 are visited in August such as many pleasure resorts. It rarely ripens seed in 

 this country only during such a season as that of 1911 but can be propagated 

 by division. 



^E. PAVIA, Linnaus. RED BUCKEYE. 



(Pavia rubra, Poiret ; y. humilis, Loddiges, Bot. Reg., t. 1018.) 



A shrub 8 to 12 ft. or more high, with smooth branches and ncn-resinous 

 buds. Leaves composed of five leaflets, which are 2 to 5 ins. long, lanceolate, 

 obovate or narrowly oblong, slightly downy beneath, especially in the vein- 

 axils ; irregularly, sharply, often doubly toothed. Flowers in panicles 3 to 6 

 ins. long ; each flower i| ins. long, with the four petals glandular at the margins, 

 which scarcely expand at all ; stamens about the length of the petals. Fruit 

 smooth. Blossoms in early June. 



Native of the southern United States ; introduced, according to Ailon, in 

 1711. It is one of the rarest of the genus in gardens, the plants met with 

 under the name being usually hybrids between this species and AL. octandra, 

 var. purpurascens. Nor do I remember ever to have seen it on its own roots ; 

 it is usually grafted as a standard on some other species, when it forms a round- 

 headed, small tree, with its lower branches pendulous. In this state it is 

 sometimes called "Pavia pendula." Its flowers are richly coloured, but owing 

 to the petals keeping closed, do not make so striking a display as they other- 

 wise would. It is less ornamental than some of the hybrid forms discussed 

 under AL. octandra. 



^E. PLANTIERENSIS, . Andrt. 



A hybrid raised in the nursery of Messrs Simon-Louis freres, at Plantieres, 

 near Metz, its parents no doubt ^E. Hippocastanum and L. carnea. The seed 

 came from the former, so that it is (if the generally accepted parentage of 

 fiL. carnea be correct) three-fourths common horse-chestnut and one part the 

 red buckeye (^E. Pavia). It shows the characters of both its parents in the leaf ; 

 the leaflets being stalkless, as in J. Hippocastanum, yet showing the more 

 strongly ridged and uneven surface of y. carnea. In shape and size the 

 panicle is like that of ^. Hippocastanum, but the whole flower is suffused with 

 a charming shade of soft pink, which it inherits from the other parent. In 

 habit and general appearance it is intermediate. It has flowered at Kew for 

 several years past, and I consider is a very beautiful and desirable acquisition. 



