The Buckeyes 



The tree occurs from Missouri to Texas and from near Memphis, 

 Tennessee, to northern Alabama. 



/Escula carnea is a garden species produced by crossing our 

 shrubby red buckeye, A. Pavia, with the horse chestnut, A. 

 Hippocasianum. The handsome hybrid tree is 20 to 30 feet high, 

 with leaves like the horse chestnut and flowers flesh coloured to 

 scarlet. The colour is derived from the smaller species, but size, 

 foliage, waxy winter buds, and slightly prickly fruit, as well 

 as its hardiness, come from the larger one. This is one of the 

 most desirable kinds for ornamental planting. 



The Horse Chestnut (Aisadus Hippocasianum, Linn.) came 

 originally from southern Asia, and has for centuries been a favourite 

 tree for avenues and parks in Europe. In America it grows 

 with even greater vigour than in the Old World. It is one of 

 the trees commonly planted in the Eastern States, and has escaped 

 from cultivation in many places. 



Longfellow's "spreading chestnut tree" was a horse chestnut. 

 He called the tree by the name popular in England, where the 

 word "horse" is ordinarily left off. The most aged and imposing 

 specimen trees are to be seen in our Eastern cities, or near them. 

 The trees reach their best development in more open country 

 away from choking dust and smothering pavements. It is by 

 no means the most desirable of trees, but it improves on ac- 

 quaintance. 



If you are in a city with a bare horse-chestnut tree outsid« 

 your window, look at it. See the great varnished brown buds 

 that tip the stout twigs. There are small buds on the sides in 

 pairs, but these are evidently subordinates. The twigs are 

 generally forked. This tells that a flower cluster came out of 

 an end bud and the growth of the twig had to be carried up by a 

 pair of side buds. The whole treetop is a great complex system 

 of candelabra — each main branch curves up, then down, then up 

 again to hold all its tips erect. 



In late winter a subtle change comes over the horse-chestnut 

 buds. They glimmer with an unwonted light as if warned from 

 within of a great change about to take place. When the warm 

 days come they swell and loosen their waxy scales, showing the 

 silky grey down that lines them, and the close-packed leaves 

 inside. If one would see a miracle he must watch the quick 

 unfolding of the leaf bundle, the lifting of the pale green silvery 



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