THE BUCKEYE FAMILY 



iESCULACEiE Lindley 



HIS family consists of 2 genera with about 16 species of trees or shrubs 

 of the northern hemisphere. They are of Httle economic value, but 

 are great favorites as shade trees and of some importance for timber. 

 The ^,sculace(B have opposite, stalked, digitately compound leaves, 

 consisting of 3 to 9 leaflets, without stipules. The flowers are borne in conspicuous 

 terminal panicles; they are polygamous, unsymmetrical and irregular. Their calyx 

 is 5-lobed, the lobes unequal; the corolla is of 4 or 5 elongated, unequal petals 

 consisting of a blade and a claw; the disk is annular or one-sided, with 5 to 8 sta- 

 mens inserted upon it, their filaments distinct, very long; anthers introrse; the 

 ovary is sessile, 3-celled; styles elongated and united, the stigma entire; ovules 2 in 

 each cell. The fruit is a leathery, dehiscent, smooth or spiny capsule; seeds large, 

 usually but one or two, with a thick, tough testa and large, thick cotyledons; there 

 is no endosperm. In addition to the genus Msculus there is a Mexican genus, 

 Billia, with one species. 



THE BUCKEYES 



GENUS .ffiSCULUS LINN^US 



[ESCULUS, an ancient name of some other tree, was applied to the 

 Horse-chestnuts and Buckeyes by Linnaeus, and has been their generic 

 name since his time. The genus includes both trees and shrubs 

 distributed in temperate regions of Europe, Asia, and America, ex- 

 tending in the New World as far south as Venezuela. There are about four Asiatic 

 species known; the Horsechestnut, the type of the genus, is a native of southeastern 

 Europe, while in America there are about 10 species, one of them in northern 

 South America, two in Mexico, 7 within the hmits of the United States, of which 

 5 are trees, while M. parviflora Walter, of the southeastern States, and ^E. argiita 

 Buckley, of the plains from Missouri to Texas, are known only as shrubs. 



The bark of these plants is unpleasantly odorous, the twigs round, the leaf 

 scars triangular, the buds large and in some species very resinous. The showy 

 flowers are borne in large clusters at the ends of branches, many of them imper- 

 fect and sterile; they appear after the leaves are nearly or quite fully grown; the 

 tubular to befl-shaped calyx is unequally 5-lobed; there are 4 or 5 unequal clawed 

 petals, when 4 they are in 2 pairs; the filaments are filiform. The capsule has 3 



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