FOREST TREES. 



90 



of cultivation for this purpose. I will remark here that some 

 botanists place all the species of horse-chestnuts with smooth 

 fruits under the generic name of Pavia, and the rough under 

 j^sculus ; but as some have fruit intermediate between the two, 

 I have followed the most common arrangement, placing all 

 under one generic name. The following are native species : 



^sculns Californica. — California Horse-Chestnut . — Leaves com- 

 posed of five slender-stalked leaflets. Flowers white, or tinged 

 with rose, borne in long, raceme-like panicles. Fruit large, 

 with a few rough points on the pod, enclosing the smooth nuts. 

 A small tree or small shrub, varying greatly in size, according 

 to locality and soil. Wood soft, and of no value. Indigenous 

 to Cahfomia. 



M* parviflora. — Dwarf Buckeye. — Leaves composed of from 

 five to seven leaflets ; soft, downy underneath. Flowers white, 

 in a long, erect raceme, appearing late in spring, or in the North 

 about mid-summer. Fruit smooth. Seeds small. Native of the 

 Southern States, but extensively cultivated in the Northern 

 States as an ornamental shrub. 



M* glabra. — Fetid, or Ohio Buckeye. — Leaflets five ; quite 

 smooth. Flowers yellow, or yellowish white, in rather short 

 panicles. Fruit prickly and rough. Only a moderate-sized, 

 tall, slender tree, common west of the Alleghanies, Virginia, 

 Tennessee, Ohio, and Missouri. Wood rather soft and of but 

 little value. 



M» flava. — Yellow, or Sweet Buckeye. — Leaves with five to 

 seven smooth leafiets. Flowers yellow, in a short, compact 

 raceme. Fruit large, smooth, or with a rough, leathery surface, 

 the pods often assuming a bright-yellow color when mature in 

 the fall. Native of Indiana, and southward along the Alleghany 

 Mountains to Northern Alabama and Georgia, and westward to 

 the Indian Territory. This is quite a variable species ; some- 

 times only a large shrub, while in favorable soils it grows to a 

 large tree sixty to seventy feet high, with stem two or more feet 

 in diameter. When planted singly, and when the branches are 

 not crowded, it forms a globular head of handsome proportions. 

 Wood light, soft, and not inclined to split, and used for troughs, 

 bread trays, wooden bowls, shuttles, where a light, rather tough 

 wood will answer. There is a native variety of this species, 

 known as the Purple Buckeye, that has both calyx and petals 

 tinged with purple. 



