46 



THE HORSE CHESTNUT. 



length fourteen inches, like a gigantic hyacinth, 

 and quite as beautiful, spiked to a point, exhibiting 

 a cone or pyramid of flowers widely separate on 

 all sides, and all expanded together, principally 

 white, finely tinted with various colours, as red, 

 pink, yellow and buff*, the stamens forming a most 

 elegant fringe amidst the modest tints of the large 

 and copious petals. These feathery blossoms, 

 lovely in colours, and stately in shape, stood 

 upright on every branch all over the tree, like 

 flowery minarets on innumerable verdant turrets. 



The natives informed us that the fruit ripens 

 early in autumn, and consists of bunches of ap- 

 ples, thinly beset with sharp thorns, each, when 

 broken, producing one or two large kernels, about 

 two inches in circumference, of the finest bright 

 mahogany colour without, and white within ; that 

 the tree is deciduous, and that the foliage just 

 before its fall, changes to the finest tints of red, 

 yellow, orange, and brown. When divested of 

 its luxuriant foliage, the buds of the next year 

 appear like little spears, which, through the win- 

 ter, are covered with a fine glutinous gum, evi- 

 dently designed to protect the embryo shoots 

 within from the severe frosts of the climate, and 

 which glisten in the cold sunshine like diamonds. 

 It has the strange property of performing the 

 whole of its vigorous shoot, more than a foot long, 

 in the short space of three weeks, employing all 

 the rest of the year in converting it into wood, 

 adding to its strength, and varying its beauty. 

 The w^ood when sawn is of the finest snowy white- 

 ness. The tree is easily raised, indifferent as to 

 soil, climate or situation; removed with safety, 

 of quick growth, thrives to a vast age and size ; 



