OHIO BUCKEYE 



Buckeye, 



nut of the Horse-chestnut ; that of the Buckeye is similar. 

 When the shell cracks and exposes to view the rich brown 

 nut with the pale bi^own scar, the re- 

 semblance to the half-opened eye of 

 a deer is not fancied but real. From 

 this resemblance came the name 

 Buckeye. 



How did it happen that Ohio was 

 called the Buckeye State ? No direct 

 evidence in the matter is forthcoming, 

 but circumstantial evidence is not 

 wanting. I'he vounger Michaux, 



travelling in this country in 1810, reports in his " Sylva 

 of Xorth America " that he found the .Esciilns i^/al'ra prin- 

 cipally in Ohio, and that it was especially abundant on the 

 banks of the Ohio River between Marietta and Bittsburg. 

 For this reason he named the new tree ()hio Buckeye and 

 as the Ohio Buckeye it has since been known, though its 

 distribution is far wider than Michaux supposed. It was no 

 doubt an easy transition from Ohio Bucke\'e, to Ohio the 

 Buckeye State, but who accomplished the deed seems not to 

 be known. 



There is a great deal of confusion in the minds of many 

 persons with regard to the Buckeye and the Horse-chestnut. 

 Both belong to the one genus, but they are not the same 

 tree. The Horse-chestnut is European, the Buckeye na- 

 tive. The Horse-chestnut is seven-fingered, the Buckeye five- 

 fingered. The Horse-chestnut is the sturdier tree, the leaves 

 are larger, rougher, the flowers much more profuse and more 

 beautiful than those of the Buckeye. It is a fact well known 

 that European plants — herbs or trees — if they flourish in 

 America at all are very likely to produce sturdier plants 

 than the native representatives of the same genus. We all 

 know that our worst and most troublesome weeds are not 

 native but introduced. The Norway maple is a sturdier tree 

 than our native maples, the white willow is stronger than 

 any of our willows, the wdiite and Lombardy poplars flourish 



53 



