VEGETABLES 



26i 



It is of quick growth^ and often becomes a large 

 tree of sixty or seventy feet in height, and above 

 three feet in diameter, sending off but a few long, 

 diverging branches, v/hicb, together with the upper 

 part of the trunk, are generally covered with a 

 smoothish bark, annually, or often renewed, and fall- 

 ing off hi plates or scales. It may be propagated by 

 cuttings, and is particularly valuable for the sea-coast 

 of America, as it is not iiijured by the salt spray or 

 boisterous winds. 



Of this genus, <ssculus^ we have, 



!• pavia^ scarlet flowering horse-chesnut, fish* 

 poison, or buck-eye. This species abounds in differ- 

 ent parts of the United States, especially to the south- 

 ward. The i^oots of it washed and bruised, are used 

 in preference to soap, for washing woollens and co- 

 loured cottons ; as they do not injure the colours so 

 much as soap. Sattins also, it is said, washed with 

 this root, and carefully ironed, look almost as well as 

 new. The fresh kernels macerated in water, mixed 

 with wheat flour, and formed into a stiff paste, will, 

 if crumbled and thrown into any water where there 

 are small Ash, make those which eat of it so drunk, 

 that they may be easily caught ; but they soon reco- 

 ver when put into fresh water. 



The fruit of our cs.pavia is much larger than that 

 of the foreign i^. hifipocastanmn^ and is of a white 

 colour : that of the hippo c as tanum is yellow. 



A sinsle nut dried, weighed half an ounce and 

 twenty grains, and yielded forty -four grains of fine 

 starch. Dr. Woodhouse prepared half a pound of 

 this starch from the nuts of ^c. pavia^ and kept it two 

 years, without impairing the white colour. It is su- 



