86 



THE HORSE CHESTNUT. 



a great resemblance externally to those of the 

 Spanish Chestnut, but are unfit for food. Hippo- 

 castanum is a translation of its modern name, 

 which was given from its curing horses broken- 

 winded and other cattle of coughs." * 



The Horse Chestnut is a tree of large size, fre- 

 quently reaching a height of fifty or sixty feet, 

 with an erect trunk and a broad pyramidal out- 

 line. It may be readily distinguished even in 

 the depth of winter by its unusually large buds, 

 set on the extremities of thick and heavy -looking 

 branches, which are evidently destined to bear a 

 weighty tuft of foliage and leaves, A celebrated 

 German naturalist detached from this tree, in the 

 winter season, a fiower-bud, not larger than a pea, 

 in which he could reckon more than sixty flowers. 

 The external covering was composed of seventeen 

 scales, cemented together by a gummy substance, 

 and protecting from moisture the down which 

 formed the internal covering of the bud. Having 

 carefully removed both the scales and down, he 

 discovered four leaves surrounding a spike of 

 flowers, and the latter so clearly visible, that with 

 the aid of a microscope, he not only counted sixty- 

 eight flowers, but could discern the pollen of the 

 stamens, and perceive that some was opaque, and 

 some transparent. It would be more advisable 

 for the young student to gather one of these buds 

 in the early spring, when the sun is just beginning 

 to melt away the gum with which the scales are 

 sealed together. 



As the sun begins to gain power the gummy 

 covering of the bud melts and yields to the ex- 

 panding pressure from within, when the scales 



* Eyelyn. 



