39 



BUCKEYE FAMILY (SAPINDACEAE). 



RED BUCKEYE. 

 Aesoulus pavia L. 



Other names: Small buckeye; buckeye: horse-chestnut. (Fig. 20.) 



Description and habitat. — A shrub 8 to 12 feet high with opposite, loug- 

 stemuied leaves, and numerous clusters of bright reel flowers, which 

 appear in March. The fruit is smooth even when young; the seeds are 

 mahogany- colored and are elegantly polished. The red buckeye is 

 native in fertile valleys from Virginia to Florida, throughout the Gulf 

 States to Louisiana, and in 

 Arkansas. It is sparingly rep- 

 resented in Missouri, Tennes- 

 see, Kentucky, and West Vir- 

 ginia. It is cultivated to some 

 extent in Pennsylvania. 



Poisonous character. — The 

 poisonous constituent is nearly 

 identical with that of the corn 

 cockle, and it is found espe- 

 cially in the young shoots and 

 in the seed. The records of its 

 poisonous action are mostly 

 confined to its use as a means 

 of procuring fish, but cattle 

 are often killed by eating the 

 fruit. It was formerly, and 

 perhaps is still, the practice to 

 stir the bruised seeds or twigs 

 into small ponds and gather 

 the stupefied fish by hand as 

 they rise to the surface. When 

 thoroughly cooked these fish 

 are quite wholesome. 



Uses. — Other species of buckeye are used in medicine and in domes- 

 tic economy. They all have a similar action and probably contain the 

 same poison. Of these species the best known is the true horse chest- 

 nut (Aesculus hippo castanum). Its bark and nuts are used as a snuff 

 to promote nasal discharge and as a wash for indolent ulcers. The 

 nut itself is used as a salve with lard, or as a wash, for rheumatism. 

 The nut shell is narcotic. In England the fruit is fed to animals, but 

 only after the removal of the poison by thorough washing with alkali 

 and water and then boiling. Oases of poisoning have arisen from over- 

 doses in medicine. The Ohio buckeye (Aesculus glabra) is regarded as 

 intermediate between the above species in its poisonous qualities. 

 Overdoses in medicine produce nearly the same symptoms as corn 



Fig. 20. — Red buckeye (Aesculus pavia) : a, flowering 

 branch; b, seed — both two-ninths natural size. 



