AORSE-CHESTNUT FAMILY 
where our natives would die, and the Horse-chestnut is 
stronger than the Buckeye, ‘There is a certain delicacy of 
fibre inseparable from all American native life. Perhaps 
some day the biologist will read the riddle. 
The Sweet Buckeye, -2sculus octéndra, is a beautiful tree of 
the Alleghany Mountains, ranging from Pennsylvania to Ala- 
bama and westward to the Indian Territory. It reaches its 
greatest size in Tennessee and North Carolina. Its leaflets 
are five to seven, dark yellow green and smooth, except the 
midrib and veins which are sometimes downy. ‘The flowers 
are borne in panicles five to seven inches long, are yellow, 
varying from pale to dark. The nuts are large, one and a 
half to two inches broad, the capsule smooth. A variety of 
this tree, 2. octandra hybrida, characterized by its red or 
purple flowers, has long been a favorite in gardens, where it 
often makes a handsome head of pendulous branches. The 
name Sweet Buckeye means simply that the bark is less fetid 
than that of others of the genus. 
HORSE-CHESTNUT 
Esculus hippocdstanum, 
flippocastanum from hippos, a horse, and casfanea a chestnut. 
Cultivated. Introduced into Europe in the seventeenth century. 
Favorite tree for parks, lawns, and roadsides. Roots fleshy; pre: 
fers a strong, rich soil; reaches the height of one hundred feet. 
Bark.—Dark brown, roughened with small excrescences, or divided 
by shallow fissures. Branchlets reddish brown, shining, at length 
dark brown. Abounds in tannic acid, fetid. 
Wood.—White, light, soft, close-grained, not durable. 
Winter Buds.—Verminal, large, an inch to an inch anda half long, 
covered with resinous gum, brown, axillary buds smaller. Scales 
in pairs, closely imbricated, within are leaves completely formed 
and packed in white tomentum. Scales enlarge when spring growth 
begins, the inner become yellow green tipped with red. One and 
a half to two inches long before they fall. 
Leaves.—Opposite, digitately compound. Leaflets seven, obovate 
Ave to seven inches long, wedge-shaped at base, serrate, acute 0 
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