12 FAMILIAR TUBES 



by the colour of Laburnum and Horse-chestnut ; but 

 there is undeniably something very majestic in the 

 tapering form of these white clusters scattered so 

 lavishly over the green foliage. Each " thyrse," as 

 they are technically termed, from the triumphal 

 sceptre, or " thyrsus," of Bacchus, is borne on a stout 

 stalk, the branches of which are given off in a some- 

 what complex manner, forming a series of one of those 

 spiral " cymes " that puzzle the student of structural 

 botany. The flowers nearest the stalk on the lower 

 branchlets are the first to open, and, receiving the full 

 benefit of the nutriment prepared in the young and 

 vigorous leaves, develop both stamens and pistils, so 

 that they will be still represented amid the storms 

 of the autumn equinox by the well-known globular 

 fruits. The upper part of the thyrse bears flowers 

 which are generally exclusively staminate, or male, 

 and disappear after the discharge . of their pollen ; 

 so that, eight, six, or more commonly but two or 

 three, fruits will in autumn be the sole result of all 

 the beauty of an entire pyramid of blossoms. Thus 

 the number of fruits in a cluster affords a gauge 

 of the geniality of the preceding May. 



Few trees, in fact, afford more palpable lessons in 

 practical physiology than the Horse-chestnut. We may 

 watch the brown leathery rind of its seed swell with- 

 moisture before the primary rootlet forces its way out, 

 and we may see the melting of the gum over the buds 

 and the shedding of their protecting scales. The 

 arrangement of the leaves determines that of the 

 branches, and the flowers at the end of a shoot prevent 

 its further elongation: the leaflets rise from, the 



