AMERICAN FOREST TREES 651 



flour, and with satisfactory results. The paste resists ferments much 

 better than that manufactured from flour; but the demand upon the nut 

 supply for that purpose is very small. Squirrels and other small 

 animals leave buckeyes alone. Some writers, whose acquaintance with 

 this tree was apparently acquired at long range, state that the nuts arc 

 food for cattle. No person with knowledge of the buckeye says that 

 Cattle occasionally eat a few, but are poisoned thereby, and if they 

 recover, they never again have anything to do with buckeyes. 



This tree is ornamental during a few months of the year. Its 

 flowers are attractive, and its large, vigorous leaves and conspicuous 

 fruit are admired in summer; but early in the fall the leaves come down, 

 the husks burst from the nuts and strew the ground with unsightly 

 fragments. The tree is seldom planted, but the horse chestnut, a foreign 

 species, takes its place. 



OHIO BUCKEYE (&sciUus glabra) was once thought to be more 

 abundant in Ohio than elsewhere, hence the name ; but its best develop- 

 ment is in Tennessee and northern Alabama. The disagreeable odor 

 emitted by the bark gives it the names fetid and stinking buckeye, and 

 it is known also as American horse chestnut. Its range is approximately 

 the same as that of yellow buckeye, but it is a smaller tree, rarely more 

 than thirty feet high, though it is seventy in exceptional cases. In 

 common with other trees of the species, it prefers rich soil along water 

 courses. The wood was formerly in demand for chip hats, but that use 

 has apparently ceased. The sap wood is darker than the heart which 

 is an exception to the general rule. Dark streaks, probably stains due to 

 fungus, occasionally run through the trunk. In weight, strength, and 

 stiffness the wood is approximately the same as yellow buckeye. Its 

 odor is sufficient to distinguish it from that species, and it associates with 

 no other except on rare occasions when it may be found with the small 

 buckeye in western Tennessee and southern Missouri. 



CALIFORNIA BUCKEYE (.Esculus calif ornica) occurs only in the state 

 whose name it bears. It is a short, much-branched, ill-formed tree; 

 root large and shaped somewhat like an inverted tub, often standing a 

 foot or more above the ground, and the branches rising from it. A tree 

 so formed is without value to the general lumberman, but cabinet 

 makers sometimes grub out the root and saw it transversely into thin 

 lumber or veneer and make small articles which possess considerable 

 figure, due to the involved growth, but little variety of color. Its tone 

 is light yellow. The tree is found in the central part of California, from 

 near sea level up to 4,500 in the Sierra Nevadas. It gets away from the 

 immediate vicinity of water courses and grows on hillsides. It is heavier 

 than any other American buckeye, and has very thin sapwood. The 



