CHAPTER XLIX: THE BUCKEYES 



Family Hippocastanace^ 



Genus ^SCULUS, Linn. 



Trees with ill-smelling bark and soft wood. Leaves palm- 

 ately compound, opposite, large. Flowers perfect, large, showy, 

 in panicles. Fruit a nut; one or two of them in a 3-celled, 3- 

 parted husk. 



KEY TO SPECIES 



A. Flowers yellow; leaflets 5 to 7. 



B. Husk spiny or rough; stamens long. 



(/£. glabra) ohio buckeye 

 BB. Husk smooth; stamens short. 



(/E. ociandra) sweet buckeye 

 AA. Flowers white; leaflets 5. 



B. Fruit smooth, pear shaped. 



(/£. Calijornica) California buckeye 

 BB. Fruit spiny, globose. (Exotic.) 



(/£. Hippocasianum) horse chestnut 

 AAA. Flowers red; leaflets 5; fruit smooth. 



(/E. ausirina) buckeye 



There are but few of our native tree families whose leaves 

 are set opposite upon the twigs. The horse chestnut family is 

 one of thern. This is an important family trait, wherever it 

 occurs; it is shared by the ashes, maples, dogwoods, catalpas, 

 viburnums and elders. Of these six the first and last have 

 compound leaves. So a tree with opposite and compound leaves, 

 if a native, is almost sure to be an ash, an elder or a buckeye. 

 Ash and elder leaflets are always distributed in pairs along the 

 sides of the main leaf stalk. The buckeyes all bunch their leaflets 

 at the end of the leaf stem. They are palmately compound, 

 while those of the ash are pinnately compound. This simple 

 and easy mode of identifying opposite-leaved trees is set forth 

 more graphically in the Key to the Families. 



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