BOTANICAL NOTICES OF NEW PLANTS. 



125 



severe weather ; for if injured by frost, they seldom flower well that season ; they 

 will, notwithstanding, endure a considerable degree of frost. 



When grown in the open border, the soil ought to be from fifteen to eighteen 

 inches deep, of a compost similar to that recommended for potting, and should be 

 perfectly dry at the bottom, either naturally so, or by being well drained. The 

 bulbs should be planted three inches deep, and the soil kept as loose as possible 

 during the winter, which assists in preventing the bulbs from being injured by 

 damp, and more effectually obviates the effects of frost. The bulbs should be 

 taken up when thoroughly ripe after flowering, and not planted again until the 

 end of November, or later if they can be kept from vegetating. If the bulbs 

 could be kept dormant until spring, there would then be no difficulty in growing 

 them out of doors ; but as natives of the southern hemisphere, their natural 

 season for growing is during our winter, when they are liable to be injured by 

 frost. The beds ought to be protected by twigs of broom or birch, which is a 

 better protection than any close covering, except in long-continued severe 

 weather. Occasional watering should be attended to if the season be hot and 

 dry when the plants are coming into flower. Shading them when in flower, will 

 also prolong their duration. 



BOTANICAL NOTICES OF NEW PLANTS. 



DICOTYLEDONES. 



iESCULACEiE. Lindl. 



iEscuLus Ohiotensis. Mich. Ohio Horse Chesnut. Bot. Reg. N. S. t. 51. This handsome 

 species is found in the Atlantic part of the United States, especially on the banks of the Ohio 

 between Pittsburgh and Marietta, where it is extremely common, and called the buck's-eye; 

 but Michaux, who first noticed it, adds, it is not to be confounded with the plant called by that 

 name in Virginia and North Carolina, which is the Pavia lutea. The ordinary height of the 

 tree is described by Michaux to be not more than from ten to twenty feet, but he found specimens 

 as much as thirty-five feet high. He states the fruit to be spiny, and about half the size of that 

 of the common horse-chesnut, the back of the old bark to be blackish, and the liber to have a 

 strong disagreeable odour. In addition to Michaux's account of the plant, and the improbability 

 that a species found wild only in Ohio, and confined to a limited region, should be the same with 

 a native of the west coast of Asia, there are ample differences between this buck's-eye chesnut and 

 the horse chesnut in their foliage. The leaflets of the former are obovate-lanceolate, finely 

 serrated, flat and pale- green, with a very even surface; of the latter, obovate, coarsely serrated, 

 wavy, and dark-green, with a very rugose and uneven surface. The shoots of the horse-chesnut 

 are smooth ; those of the buck's-eye chesnut are covered with a fine short soft down. Finally, 

 the latter species in this climate is a much more rapid-growing tree than the former. It flowers 

 in May, and may be increased by either grafting in the spring, or by budding in the summer, on 

 the common horse chesnut ; the grafts and buds should be worked as near the ground as possible, 

 to prevent the unsightly appearance of the buck's eye growing out of the stick. It is hardy. 

 Bot. Reg. 



