129 
flowers at the tips of the side clusters 
nearest the top, but fruits are very sel- 
dom produced by any of the side shoots 
owing to this strange fault in the flowers. 
The flowers are of no use for cutting 
but are very beautiful, coming so freely 
upon the branches that more than a hun- 
dred large clusters may often be found 
on little shrubs oi only a few feet high. 
The plants do not fruit at all freely 
except ingood seasons. The fruits swell 
to the size of a little angular Apple or 
Pear (and may resemble either one or 
the other in shape), with a rough pale- 
green husk which when ripe splits down- 
ward from its pointed tip into three parts, 
like a Horse Chestnut, showing brown- 
ish-purple seeds which are nearly half- 
an-inch across. The Chinese eat them, 
and grow the tree for this purpose ; in 
our country their only value is as a means 
of increase, there being no other method 
but root-cuttings taken just before the 
plant starts into growth, and these do 
not always succeed. The fruits ripen 
towards the end of July, coming mostly 
in bunches of 3 or 4 upon a thick, fleshy 
stalk, though occasionally as many as 6 
or 7 form in one cluster. When planted 
in favourable conditions the scattered 
seed often comes up around the parent 
in the open border, providing a supply 
of young plants ready to hand. 
The Xanthoceras is a slow grower 
and averse to removal, making only a 
few stout roots which run deep. It is 
doubtful whether it will ever reach full 
size in this country, the largest tree so 
far being about 14 feet high and as much 
in diameter. This fine plant is about 26 
years old and is growing in light porous 
' soil and quite an open position in the 
! gardens of Oflington Park, Worthing. 
It fruits very freely in good seasons hav- 
ing borne clusters of 6 or 7 fruits to- 
gether a few years since, while Mr. 
I Gaisford tells us that the tree is full of 
flower-buds at the present time. There 
is a second plant almost as fine in the 
same gardens, but this one has the pro- 
tection of a greenhouse. An old plant 
at Kew has reached the top of a 1 2 foot 
wall and would grow somewhat higher 
if allowed, but its way of branching is 
too stifl" to make it a good wall plant. 
Other fine trees are at Richmond, the 
I Victoria Park — Bath,atTotteridge,and 
other places of warm, light soil, while 
' a fine tree of i o feet growing at Lewes 
has recently died. It is not a common 
tree in the south of Europe, where the 
I long summer drought is against it, but 
i a few fine ones of nearly full size may 
be found here and there in moist places, 
j and beautiful groups have been formed 
in the gardens at Monte Carlo, showing 
, how well it lends itself to grouping,when 
in the best conditions. In our country 
it is perhaps mostly grown for gentle 
forcing, flowering freely in pots when 
aided by a little warmth . After growing 
for awhile under glass, care is necessary 
when the pots are again placed in the 
open 
, or the tender leaves will suffer from 
wind, and whole shoots die away com- 
pletely . Even plants that are well estab- 
lished in the open often betray this weak- 
ness, small shoots fading away quite sud- 
denly and without any apparent cause, 
while full of leaf and flower. 
The clumsy botanical name meaning 
" yellow-horn " comes from the curious 
