The Buckeyes 



Alleghany Mountains from Pennsylvania to Alabama; west to 

 Michigan and Oklahoma. Uses: Wood used for artificial limbs 

 and small wares. 



This tree was found most abundantly in Ohio by the botanical 

 explorer, Michaux, and though it grows more plentifully farther 

 west, Ohio will always be called "the Buckeye State." The 

 tree is gradually becoming rarer, for the strong, disagreeable 

 odour exhaled by its bark impels people to cut it down. There 

 is nothing about the tree to offset this disadvantage. Its flowers 

 are inferior to those of other species. Only the special use to 

 which its wood is put — the making of artificial limbs — seems to 

 justify this ill-favoured tree in the eyes of practical people. Its 

 vigorous nuts are too bitter to be eaten, and thus it seems to be 

 well fitted to hold its own in the woods. 



The Yellow, Sweet, or Big Buckeye {Aisculus octandra, 

 Marsh.), grows on mountain slopes of the Alleghanies, from 

 western Pennsylvania south into Georgia and Alabama, and west 

 to Iowa and Texas. It is a handsome large tree, with leaves 

 of five slenderly elliptical leaflets, more or less pubescent below 

 and on the veins above. The showy yellow flowers are elongated 

 into tubes. The husks of the nuts arj smooth. This species lacks 

 the disagreeable odour of the Ohio buckeye, and its nuts, though 

 distasteful to people, are eaten by cattle. Paste made from 

 these nuts is preferred by bookbinders. It is strong in two 

 senses: it holds well, and destructive insects will not eat it. 



The California Buckeye (/Esculus Calijornica, Nutt.) is a 

 close, wide-topped tree, 30 to 40 feet high, with leaves much 

 like the horse chestnut's, large, compact clusters of white or 

 rose-coloured flowers, and smooth pear-shaped fruits. Its 

 winter buds are pointed and resinous. The upper Sacramento 

 Valley is its northern limit. It is found along the coast and on 

 the western slopes of the Sierras as far as Los Angeles County. 

 It is occasionally seen in European gardens. 



A red-flowered buckeye {/Esculus austrina, Sarg.) has but 

 recently been assigned a place among the species of this genus. 

 It is a small tree, often scarcely more than a shrub. Its thin 

 bark is pale, the leaves have five leaflets, but the distinctive 

 character is the bright red flower cluster, with stamens protruding 

 from the tubular corollas. Later, the pitted husk of the fruit, 

 and the two thin-shelled nuts within it are good characters. 



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