646 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



Buckleyi, Sarg.) with 6-7-foliolate leaves and narrower lanceolate more acuminate 

 and usually more sharply and doubly serrate leaflets, ranges from Iowa to Kansas 

 and eastern Texas. 



Occasionally cultivated as an ornamental plant in the eastern United States and in 

 Europe, and hardy as far north as Massachusetts. 



2. -ffisculus octandra, Marsh. Sweet Buckeye. 



Leaves with slender glabrous or slightly pubescent petioles 4'-6' long, and 5-7 

 elliptical or obovate-oblong leaflets, sharply and equally serrate, short-petiolulate, 

 glabrous above except on the midribs and 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 exception of a few hairs along the 

 midribs and in the axils of the principal veins, dark yellow-green, duller on the 

 lower than on the upper surface, 4'-6' long, l%'-ty' wide, turning yellow in the au- 

 tumn before falling. Flowers opening in early spring when the leaves are about 



half grown, !'-!' long, pale or dark yellow, on short pedicels mostly unilateral on 

 the branches of the pubescent clusters 5'-7' in length; calyx campanulate, sparingly 

 villose; petals connivent, very unequal, puberuleut, 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 the base; sta- 

 mens usually 7, rather shorter than the petals, with straight or inclining subulate 

 villous 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. 



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; or toward the southern and southwestern 

 limits of its range a low shrub. Winter-buds f ' long, rather obtuse, with broadly 

 ovate pale brown outer scales rounded on the back, minutely apiculate, ciliate, with- 

 out resin, and slightly covered with a glaucous bloom, the inner scales becoming 

 sometimes 2' long, bright yellow or occasionally scarlet. Bark of the trunk about 

 ' 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 



