HIPPOCASTANACEJE HORSE-CHESTNUT 

 FAMILY 



OHIO BUCKEYE. FETID BUCKEYE 



sEsculus glclbra. 

 ALsculns is derived from esca, nourishment. Glabm, smooth. 



A tree varying in height from thirty to seventy feet, native only in 

 the valley of the Mississippi. Prefers the river bottoms ; nowhere 

 abundant, but widely distributed. Roots thick and fleshy. Reaches 

 its greatest development in the valley of the Tennessee and in 

 northern Alabama. 



Bark. Dark gray, densely furrowed, broken into plates. Branch- 

 lets orange brown and downy, later reddish brown and smooth, 

 marked with many lenticular spots, finally dark brown. Fetid, me- 

 dicinal. 



Wood. White, sapwood pale brown ; light, soft, close-grained. 

 Used especially in the manufacture of wooden limbs. Sp. gr., 0.4542; 

 weight of cu. ft., 28.31 Ibs. 



Winter Buds. Pale brown, two-thirds of an inch long, acute, 

 outer scales with glaucous bloom. Inner scales enlarge when spring 

 growth begins, become an inch and a half to two inches long, green- 

 ish yellow tipped with red and remain until leaves are nearly half 

 grown. 



Leaves. Opposite, digitately compound. Leaflets five, rarely 

 seven, oval, oblong, or ovate, gradually contracted at the base, ser- 

 rate, acuminate, feather-veined ; midrib and primary veins promi- 

 nent. They come out of the bud a shining brownish green, downy; 

 when full grown are yellow green above, paler beneath. In autumn 

 they turn a rusty yellow. Petiole long, grooved, swollen at base, 

 sometimes chaffy at the point where the leaflets diverge. 



Flowers. April, May, June. Terminal, polygamo-monoecious, 

 yellow green, unilateral; borne in terminal panicles five to six 

 inches long, two to three in breadth, more or less downy ; pedicels 

 four to six-flowered. 



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