25 



pjc Crcatfurn of SSotanrn 



[.ETHE 



sensitiva, which 

 Indies. 



common in the West 

 [A. A. B.] 



JESCFLUS. The Horse-chestnut. The 

 name -Esculus (from esca, food) was ap- 

 plied originally to a species of oak which, 

 according to Plinj-, was highly prized for 

 its acorns ; but how it came to be trans- 

 ferred to the horse-chestnut is very un- 

 certain : perhaps, as Loudon suggests, it 

 was given ironically, because its nuts bear 

 a great resemblance, externally, to those 

 of the sweet chestnut, but are unfit for 

 food. Hippocastanum (the specific name of 

 the common sort) is a translation of the 

 modern name, which was given, Evelyn 

 tells us, 'from its curing horses broken- 

 winded and other cattle of coughs.' The 

 Horse-chestnut is a tree of large size, fre- 

 quently reaching a height of fifty or sixty 

 feet, with an erect trunk and a broad 

 pyramidal outline. It may be readily dis- 

 tinguished, even in the depth of winter, 

 by its unusually large buds, set on the 

 extremities of thick and heavy-looking 

 branches, which are evidently destined to 

 bear a weighty tuft of foliage and leaves. 

 These buds are covered thickly with a 

 gummy substance, which protects the ten- 

 der interior from the cold and wet. As 

 the sun gains power, the gummy cover- 

 ing melts and yields to the expanding pres- 

 sure from within, and then the scales on 

 which it is overlaid fall off, and the 

 delicate green leaves are rapidly unfolded, 

 en circling a conical mass of embryo flowers. 

 In this stage the leaves present a singular 

 appearance, drooping with their points to- 

 wards the ground, as if not strong enough 

 to assume a horizontal position. The buds 

 expand very early in spring, but not pre- 

 maturely, for within three or four weeks 

 of their first unfolding they have attained 

 their full length, amounting sometimes to 

 eighteen inches. The leaves and flower- 

 buds continue to increase in size until 

 May, when the latter expand; and now 

 the tree, having reached the meridian of 

 its glory, stands forth prominently in all 

 the gorgeousness of leaf and blossom. 

 The downy covering, which was observ- 

 able on the leaves in their early stage, 

 has disappeared, and they have assumed 

 instead a rich full green. Each leaf is 

 composed of seven broad leaflets, unequal 

 in size, which radiate from a common 

 centre, a character of foliage different 

 from that of any other British tree. The 

 flowers, which grow in long cone-shaped 

 clusters, are snowy white, dashed with 

 pink and yellow, destitute of perfume, but 

 attractive to insects, and, as long as they 

 continue in perfection, very beautiful. 

 They soon, however, become tarnished, 

 and the tree consequently loses much 

 of its grace ; yet it is still a fine tree, 

 readily distinguished at a considerable 

 distance by its tiers of large and massive 

 foliage. Out of the numerous flowers con- 

 tained in every bunch, a few only mature 

 their fruit ; the rest drop off soon after 

 they have begun to lose their beauty. The 

 seed-vessels, which are set with short J 



rigid prickles, attain their full size in 

 October, when they fall off, and, splitting 

 with even valves, disclose three cells, in 

 each of which is contained a roundish 

 polished nut, resembling the sweet chest- 

 nut in colour, but not, like it, terminating 

 in a point. It rarely happens that all 

 three nuts are perfected ; frequently only 

 two are developed, but the rudiments of 

 all may be discovered. The nuts abound 

 in farinaceous matter, but are too bitter 

 to be fit for human food. They serve, 

 however, as food for goats, sheep, and 

 deer, and are sometimes boiled and given 

 to poultry. Reduced to powder, and mixed 

 M-ith a third pare of flour, they are said to 

 make better paste than that composed of 

 flour alone. The timber, owing to its 

 rapid growth, is soft and of loose fibre, and 

 is consequently of little value. The Horse- 

 chestnut is supposed to be a native of Asia, 

 probably of northern India, whence it was 

 introduced into Europe about the middle 

 of the sixteenth century. There is a very 

 fine variety with deep rose-coloured blos- 

 soms; and in North America is found an- 

 other species, the jE. ohiotensis or Buckeye, 

 which is far inferior to the common sort in 

 the beauty of its flowers. The tree some- 

 times called the Scarlet Horse-chestnut be- 

 longs to a closely allied genus, Pavia, which 

 see. [C. A. J.] 



^STIVAL. Of or belonging to the sum- 

 mer. 



ESTIVATION. The manner in which the 

 parts of a flower are folded up before the 

 flower expands. 



iETHALIUM. A genus of myxogastrous 

 funguses, inhabiting more especially stoves 

 and garden-frames where a strong heat is 

 kept up, and doing much damage, by first 

 involving everything in a slimy mass, and 

 then contaminating what it has not over- 

 run, by its myriads of dust-like spores. 

 The principal species, uEthaliumflavum (if, 

 indeed, the others are not mere varieties, 

 differing only in colour), appears first under 

 the form of a yellow cream-like mass, 

 which is found to consist, when closely ex- 

 amined, of little wavy viscid strings ; this 

 at length swells, and produces abundant 

 dark spores, collected in little heaps sepa- 

 rated from each other by thin irregular 

 yellow partitions ; the outer surface is 

 rough and scurfy. It sometimes occurs on 

 leaves and rotten wood, in groves and 

 forests, and is found in various parts of 

 the world. The best way of getting rid of 

 it, is dusting the plant, as soon as it ap- 

 pears, with quicklime or salt. This treat- 

 ment must, however, be followed up per- 

 severingly, as the growth is so rapid that 

 the dusty stage, in which the lime or salt 

 is of little use, may recur before a se- 

 cond application is made. [M. J. B.] 



ETHERIA. A genus of terrestrial orchids 

 found in the tropics of Central Asia, and 

 nearly allied to Goodyera, from which it 

 differs, indeed, in little except the presence 

 of two callosities at the base of the lip. 

 Five or six species are known. 



