260 The Horse Chestnut. 



and bent forwards and downwards in the direction of the sta- 

 mens. It has a simple style, the point of which, where the stigma 

 is, has no hairs, and a fleshy two or three-celled ovary, the sides 

 of which arc deeply channelled by the pressure of the filaments. 

 In each cell are two ovules, one of which rises up while the other 

 hangs down from a projecting horizontal placenta. The fruit 

 becomes an unequal sided, leathery, prickly seed vessel, opening 

 by two or three valves, and containing one large, roundish seed 

 in each cell. The seeds have a hard, shining, deep brown coat, 

 a very broad scar on one side, and a little conical elevation which 

 touches with its point one part of the scar. This conical eleva- 

 tion represents the position of the radicle of the embryo that is 

 hidden beneath the seed coat; on removing the latter, a roundish, 

 wrinkled, fleshy body is found, which cannot be separated into 

 cotyledons, but whose radicle curved down upon itself is dis- 

 tinctly visible. We have here one of several instances in which 

 the cotyledons attach themselves so closely together as makes it 

 impossible to separate them. The plumule, or growing point of 

 this embryo, lies closely packed between the bases of the con- 

 solidated cotyledons, and one wonders how it is to escape from 

 them when the time shall arrive for the seed to commence its 

 growth into a plant. A simple alteration in the adjustment of 

 the parts produces the desired effect. As the cotyledons cannot 

 unfold in the usual manner in order to allow the plumule to pass 

 between them, the passage of the latter upwards into the air is 

 provided for by a slight extension of the bases of the cotyledons, 

 which begin to lengthen when the radicle forces itself into the 

 earth, and thus extricate the plumule from what would otherwise 

 be its prison-house. 



The iEscuLus Hippocastanum — Horse Chestnut, is a noble 

 and hardy tree, rising to the height of from fifty to sixty feet, and 

 elegantly proportioned, and when in blossom, which it is with 

 us in the months of May or June, few trees can compare with it 

 in beauty. This stately and ornamental tree gives the deepest 

 and most solemn shade of any with which we are acquainted. 

 It bears five or seven leaves on one stalk, spread out like the 

 fingers of a human hand. An English writer describes it when 

 in full blossom like a mountain of ivory and emeralds ; but this 

 effect soon gives place to its shadowy depth of coloring. Though 

 naturalized in Europe for more than two centuries, it does not 



