HORSE-CHESTNUT 
This nut shares with the potato, in the minds of many 
people, the occult power of being able to cure rheumatism 
by being carried on the person of the sufferer. 
The tree is subject to a serious disease, now common and 
widely spread throughout the northern 
United States, which is due to a fun- 
gus. This appears upon the leaf in 
early summer in the form of a yellow 
discoloration with a reddish margin. 
Later, the patches become quite brown, 
giving the leaves the appearance of 
Horse-chestnut, Esculus wp- having been scorched by fire, some- 
pocastanum. Fruit 1%! . < : sae 
1s or lanes times extending from the midrib to the 
margin of the leaflets. In time they 
shrivel and fall, leaving the tree almost leafless in midsum- 
mer. The liability to this disease is a serious objection to 
the tree. 
The name Horse-chestnut, which is only a literal transla- 
tion of the specific Latin name Azppocastenum, has been ac- 
counted for in many ways. The obvious fact that the scar 
of the leaf-stem really looks like the imprint of a horse’s 
hoof seems the most reasonable explanation of the name: 
many plants have been named for less. 
The finest plantation of Horse-chestnuts in the world is 
that of Bushey Park near Hampton Court, the ancient pal- 
ace of Cardinal Wolsey. Five rows of trees stand on each 
side of the avenue, and when these trees are in bloom the 
daily papers announce the fact and all London goes out to 
see the sight. 
The Red Horse-chestnut, “sewlus rubicunda, common in 
our gardens, is a tree of unknown origin. Professor Sargent 
inclines to the belief that it is a hybrid between the commou 
Horse-chestnut, .2s. hippocastanum and és. pavia of the 
southern states. It resembles the former in its leaves and 
the latter in its flowers. 
