HIPPOCASTANACE^: 



705 



veins sometimes clothed with reddish brown pubescence, when they unfold more or less 

 canescent-pubescent on the lower surface, becoming glabrous at maturity, with the excep- 

 tion of a few pale or rufous hairs along the stout midrib and in the axils of the principal 

 veins, dark yellow-green, duller on the lower than on the upper surface, 4'-6' long, and 

 l-2-'-2|' wide; petiolules 1*%-%' in length; turning yellow in the autumn before falling. 

 Flowers opening in early spring when the leaves are about half grown, l'-l|' long, pale 

 or dark yellow, rarely red, pink or cream-colored (var. virginica Sarg.), on short glandular- 

 villose pedicels mostly unilateral on the branches of the pubescent clusters 5 '-7' in length,' 

 calyx campanulate, glandular- villose; petals connivent, very unequal, puberulent, the 

 claws villose within, limb of the superior pair spatulate, minute, the long claws exceeding 

 the lobes of the calyx, those of the lateral pair obovate or nearly round and subcordate at 

 base; stamens usually 7, rather shorter than the petals, with straight or inclining subulate 

 villose filaments; ovary pubescent. Fruit 2'-3' long, generally 2-seeded, with thin smooth 

 or slightly pitted pale brown valves; seeds 1|' to nearly 2' wide. 



Fig. 634 



A tree, sometimes 90 high, with a tall straight trunk 2--3 in diameter, small rather 

 pendulous branches, and glabrous or nearly glabrous branchlets orange-brown when they 

 first appear, becoming in their second year pale brown and marked by numerous irregularly 

 developed lenticels. Winter-buds f ' long, rather obtuse, with broad-ovate pale brown 

 outer scales rounded on the back, minutely apiculate, ciliate, and slightly covered with a 

 glaucous bloom, the inner scales becoming sometimes 2' long, bright yellow or occasionally 

 scarlet. Bark of the trunk about f ' thick, dark brown, divided by shallow fissures and 

 separating on the surface into small thin scales. Wood light, soft, close-grained, difficult 

 to split, creamy white, with thjck hardly distinguishable sapwood; used in the manufacture 

 of artificial limbs, for wooden ware, wooden hats, paper pulp, and occasionally sawed into 

 lumber. 



Distribution. Rich river-bottoms and mountain slopes; southwestern Pennsylvania 

 (Alleghany, Greene and Fayette Counties), southward along the mountains to east Ten- 

 nessee, and northwestern Georgia, and westward to north central Ohio (near Plymouth, 

 Richard County), southeastern and southern Indiana (near Aurora, Dearborn County, and 

 on the banks of Dry River near Leavenworth, Crawford County, C. C. Deam) and to south- 

 ern Illinois (near Golconda, Pope County, shrub 6'-12' high, E. J. Palmer) ; the var. virginica 

 at White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. 



Occasionally cultivated in the parks of the eastern United States and Europe. 



X Aesculus hybrida DC., with red and yellow flowers, believed to be a hybrid of Aesculus 

 octandra and Aesculus Pavia, appeared in the Botanic Garden at Montpelier in France 



