THE HORSECHESTNUT 



It will grow well on sandy or on calcareous soils but 

 luxuriates best in rich, cool loam. Given plenty of 

 room in park or on lawn it will exceed a hundred feet 

 in height and 20 feet in girth of trunk. Its massive 

 branches with their laterals form a splendid oval or 

 bell-shaped crown, and sweep the ground. In spring 

 pyramids, fully ten inches high, of flowers are up- 

 thrust from the ends of thousands of branches. No 

 tree is more prodigal in its wealth of blossoms, and 

 none is more spectacularly beautiful. The petals 

 are erect and tend to curve backward, the stamens — 

 seven in number — and the style are slightly curved 

 and projected forward, and serve as a platform for 

 bees — their chief visitors. On the face of the upper 

 petal are yellow spots which later turn red and are 

 called honey-guides. A closer inspection will reveal 

 other interesting facts. In each thyrsoid inflores- 

 cence the upper flowers open first and are potentially 

 male; the lower flowers are perfect, but the pistil 

 matures first and is ready to receive the pollen im- 

 mediately the flowers open; the stamens in these 

 flowers are at first bent down below the style, later 

 on they move up to its level. We see here a provi- 

 sion for cross-pollination from the upper male 

 flowers and, if this fails, self-pollination is assured by 

 the rising of the stamens in the same flowers. The 

 scent of the flowers is remotely like that of the Haw- 



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