212 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



Baumann discovered in 1822, near Geneva, a horse-chestnut tree, of which a single 

 branch bore double flowers ; and from this branch the variety was propagated at the 

 Bollweiler nursery in Alsace.^ The flowers last longer than those of the single kind,^ 

 and no fruits are formed, which renders it useful as a tree in streets, where the fall of 

 fruits is an inconvenience. This variety is very hardy, and resisted well the severe 

 winter of 1879-80 in France." 



2. Var. laciniata (var. asplenifolia, var. incisa). Leaflets cut up into narrow 

 lobes. According to Beissner* this variety has been in cultivation for over forty 

 years ; and a form of it was found by Herr Henkel of Darmstadt, which keeps its 

 foliage much longer than the typical form ; but this is not the case in some localities. 



3. Var. crispa. Leaves short -stalked, with broad leaflets. Tree compact in 

 habit. 



4. Var. pyramidalis. Upright in habit. 



5. Var. U7nbraculifera. Crown densely branched, and globular in outline. 



6. Var. tortnosa. Branches bent and twisted. 



7. Var. Meniminge7-i. Leaves yellowish in colour, looking as if powdered with 

 sulphur. 



8. Var. aureo-variegata. Leaves variegated with yellow. 



Several other varieties of slight interest, which do not seem to be in cultivation 

 in this country, are mentioned by Schelle.^ 



Distribution and History 



The horse-chestnut occurs wild in the mountains of northern Greece. Halacsy,^ 

 the latest authority, gives many localities in Phthiotis, Eurytania, Thessaly, and 

 Epirus ; but states that it is not found wild on Mount Pelion or in Crete. Baldacci," 

 in 1897, found the tree growing wild on almost inaccessible precipices below the 

 lower limit of the coniferous belt near Syrakou in the district of Janina in Albania. 



The native country of the tree was long a matter of doubt ; but the whole 

 question was satisfactorily elucidated by Heldreich^ in a paper, from which we 

 extract most of the following account. Linnjeus considered the habitat of the 

 tree to be northern Asia, and De Candolle thought that it came from northern 

 India. The tree is, however, not known wild in India, where it is replaced by 

 y^scuhis indica. Boissier' states that it is recorded from Greece by Sibthorp, from 

 Imeritia (Caucasus)^by Eichwald, and from Persia by various authors. It is, however, 

 unknown in the wild state in Persia ; and Radde ^" mentions it only as a planted tree 



' Rev. Belgiqiu Horticole, 1 854, iv. 216. 



2 See Garden, 1S90, xxxviii. 60 1, where some observations are recorded on the periods of flowering of the single and 

 double horse-chestnuts, and of ALscuIks carnea. 



3 Rev. Horticole, 1884, p. 98. ' Mill. Dent. Denjrol. Gesell. 1905, pp. 13, 14, and 1906, p. 10. 

 ^ Handbuch Latcbholz-Benenniing, 321 (190J). c Consp. Fl. Gracce, i. 291 (1900). 



'' Rivista Collez. Botan. in Albania, 23 (Florence, 1S97). 



8 Verkand. Bot. Vereins Prov. Bratulenbiirg, 1879, p. 139. The British Alinister at Athens, Sir F. E. H. Elliot, 

 K.C.M.G., who kindly made inquiries, has sent us a letter from Professor Miliarakis of the University of Athens, dated 

 April 2, 1904, which confirms Heldreich's statements. 



" Flora Orientalis, i. 947 (1867). "' PjJanzenverbreiliini; in A'.ui/casiisbinder/i, 433, 434 (1S99). 



