iES'CULUS RUBICUN'DA 
RUDDY HORSE-CHESNUT. 
Class. 
I1EPTANDRIA . 
Order. 
MONOC YNIA . 
Natural Order. 
ASCULACE®. 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Duration. 
I ntroduced 
N. America 
12 feel. 
June. 
Perennial 
in 1820. 
No. 853. 
iEsculus is derived from the Greek esca, signi- 
fying nourishment ; and is said to have been 
applied to a tree bearing an eatable fruit; eatable 
we may presume, by pigs, since Pliny says it was 
inferior to that of the common Oak. The tree 
must have been common at Rome, for in Pliny’s 
Natural History, he mentions a grove there, called 
the Esculetum, on account of its being planted 
with Esculi. The want of botanical language by 
the ancients, leaves us here, as in most other 
instances, almost devoid of materials, even for con- 
jecture what tree bore this name. 
Every body knows the common species of Horse- 
chesnut — the iEsculus hippocastinum, and, in 
flower, a more splendid object is rarely afforded 
by the park or the forest. The tree, which we 
now introduce to our readers is very nearly 
allied to it; there is indeed, much probability 
that it is the offspring of that species. Its differ- 
ence is little more than that which exists between 
the scarlet hawthorn and its white-flowering parent. 
When trees or shrubs are long and extensively 
raised from seeds, variations in them will always 
214. 
