THE HORSE CHESTNUT. 



39 



tree. Its clusters of irregular blossoms, snowy- 

 white, dashed with pink and yellow, and affording 

 thus early in the season a rich banquet to the ven- 

 turesome bee, proclaim that the flower-bearing 

 season now reigns paramount. In the following 

 description of it in this stage," says Strutt, ^^we 

 can scarcely wish for anything to be altered. ^ On 

 reaching, we cannot choose but pause before, this 

 stately Chestnut-tree, the smooth stem of which 

 rises from the earth like a dark-coloured marble 

 column, seemingly placed there by art to support 

 the pyramidal fabric of beauty that surmounts it. 

 It has just put forth its first series of rich fan-like 

 leaves, each family of which is crowned by its 

 splendid spiral flower; the whole, at this period 

 of the year, forming the grandest vegetable object 

 that our kingdom presents, and vieing in rich 

 beauty with any that Eastern woods can boast. 

 And if we could reach one of those flowers to 

 pluck it, we should find that the most delicate of 

 the fair ones of the garden or green-house do not 

 surpass it in elaborate pencilling and richly-varied 

 tints. It can be likened to nothing but its own 

 portrait painted on velvet.'" 



This being the only common tree in Britain of 

 large size which bears conspicuous flowers, it has 

 received several popular names derived from that 

 fact, such as gigantic hyacinth, lupine-tree, giant's 

 nosegay : this last name in particular suggests a 

 correct notion of its vastness and showy appear- 

 ance. The flowers, though exquisitely beautiful 

 so long as they continue in perfection, soon be- 

 come 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 



