HORSE-CHESTNUT THEE. 



179 



half long, and the leaves in this space of time are fully 

 expanded. No sooner have the flowers fallen than the 

 buds begin to form for the succeeding year: they con- 

 tinue swelhng till autumn, at which season they are 

 covered with a thick tenacious juice, which defends the 

 tender buds from the frost and rain of winter. Upon 

 the first return of warmth in the spring, this juice melts 

 and runs off, leaving the bud at liberty to open. The 

 buds being always fonaied at the extremity of the 

 branches, plainly indicates that they must not be short- 

 ened, as the shoots for the ensuing year would so be en- 

 tirely cut off. 



There are varieties of this tree in the nurseries, both 

 with gold and with silver-striped leaves. 



The scarlet Horse-Chestnut, Msculus pavia, grows 

 about twenty feet high ; it does not spread its branches 

 to any great extent : the leaves are of a light green, op- 

 posite, and on long red foot-stalks. The flowers grow 

 at the ends of the branches, also upon long and naked 

 foot-stalks, each sustaining four or five flowers : they are 

 much smaller than in the common species, wholly red, 

 tubulous, without any brim ; they blow in June, and are 

 sometimes succeeded by fruit ; but it seldom comes to 

 maturity in England. 



This tree is from Brazil, Carolina, and Florida ; Japan, 

 and several parts of the East ; and was cultivated here in 

 1712. 



Thunberg observed by the road-side near Copenhagen, 

 " many fine avenues of Horse-Chestnut trees, the trunks 

 of which had been wreathed, when young, into a spiral 

 form at the bottom*.'" 



Thunberg's Travels, vol. i. page 3. 



