Buckeye

Buckeye (Aesculus) - Mostly medium-sized trees, hardy and excellent for park or garden. The common variety is an exception as to size, and one of the most beautiful of flowering trees. There is at least one handsome variety of it with very long spikes. The red Buckeye (Ae. Pavia) is a small tree, with dense and large foliage, together with bright red flowers in large loose clusters in early summer. Sometimes it rises from 15 to 20 feet high, but some of its varieties are only low-spreading or trailing shrubs. Ae. humilis, pendula, arguta, and laciniata are forms of Ae. Pavia, and the plants are useful for grouping with taller trees. Ae. flava (the yellow Buckeye) is sometimes 40 feet high, with something of the habit of the red Buckeye (Ae. rubicunda), but smoother leaves. A variety called purpurascens (sometimes Ae. discolor) has much showier flowers, larger, and of a reddish tint. The AEsculi, named in gardens and nurseries as Ae. neglecta, hybrida, pubescens, Lyoni, rosea, and pallida, may be included in one of the foregoing species. They are all low trees or large shrubs, coming into leaf early and losing their foliage in early autumn, especially in light or dry soils. One of the best of the forms is the Ae. Brioti. The Californian Buckeye (Ae. Californica) in this country does not usually rise above shrub height. It has slender-stalked leaves, broad leaflets, and in early summer dense erect clusters of pinkish fragrant flowers; a valuable hardy tree. The N. American Ae. parviflora (dwarf Buckeye) is a handsome shrub, 6 to 10 fhigh, flowering in late summer. Its white, fragrant flowers are in long, erect plumes. Ae. macrostachya is an August-blooming N. American shrub of great beauty. The growth is spreading and bushy, with creamy white flowers in dense plumy spikes.

Ae. Indica, the Indian Horse Chestnut, is as handsome as Ae. Hippocastanum, and flowers about the end of June. In the Himalayas it sometimes grows 100 feet high. The leaves are larger and smoother than those of other tall-growing kinds, whilst the panicles of flowers are sometimes a foot long. The fruits are free from spines.

Ae. Wilsoni, a Chinese species, is closely allied to the Indian kind. It is remarkable for its large leaves, the centre leaflet sometimes exceeding a foot in length, and for its long panicles of small white flowers. There are other species not yet introduced or tried in Britain.

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