HIPPOCASTANACE^— HORSE-CHESTNUT 

 FAMILY 



OHIO BUCKEYE. FETID BUCKEYE 



yEsculus i^lhhya, 



yEsculus is derived from esca, nourishment. Glabra, 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 distriliuted. 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 i eddish brown and smooth, 

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

 dicinal. 



ITood. — 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 lbs. 



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. 



Lfnu's. — Opposite, digitately compound. Leaflets five, rarely 

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

 r (te, acuminate, feather-veined ; midrib and primary veins promi- 

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

 when fidl 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-moncecious, 

 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. 



SO 



