From the great outlines of the trees against the sky to the little scales of the buds on the stems we marvel to find here as in all nature, order, law, consistency out of infinite variety. CHAPTER II THE HORSECHESTNUT [Illustration: HORSECHESTNUT _Æsculus hippocastanum_ Page 17 ] Chapter II THE HORSECHESTNUT Family Hippocastanaceæ This a small family consisting of one well-known cultivated species,—the horsechestnut,—and four belonging to the Western and Southern States,—the various large and small buckeyes. The horsechestnut is so well known and its winter characteristics so clearly marked that I have chosen it first for description, although no species of the family is found growing wild in the Northeastern States. [Sidenote: Horsechestnut _Æsculus hippocastanum_] _A large tree with a pyramidal head. The bark of old trees splits off in small square pieces, and in young trees it is smooth. Very coarse twigs and large brown buds covered with a gummy substance. Opposite leaf-scars._ The horsechestnut has little grace or beauty of outline in winter. Its branches are stiff, the twigs are coarse, ending bluntly with large terminal buds, and the general shape too compact to be pleasing. The buds and recent shoots are particularly interesting however, as every scar is sharply defined and the buds are so large we can see the inner structure perfectly. In the accompanying illustration we see a two-year-old shoot with a large terminal bud and two lateral buds below the ring of scars left by the scales of the terminal bud of the year before. The bundle-scars are plainly seen on the leaf-scars, and above one of the leaf-scars there is a lateral bud ready to develop into a lateral branch when it opens in the spring. The circle of scars at the base of each lateral shoot was left by the scales of the lateral bud of the year before. There are one or two small undeveloped buds at the top of the leaf-scars which would carry on the growth of the branch if anything happened to injure the vigorous buds at the tips of the stems. The dots on the bark are the lenticels. By opening the bud with a knife we find beneath the sticky gummy substance and the numerous layers of scales a complete branch in miniature. The little leaves are carefully packed in downy wool to keep out the dampness and cold, and in their turn they protect the delicate pink spike of flowers. A German naturalist once counted sixty-eight flowers on one of these undeveloped spikes in the bud, and with a microscope he discovered the pollen of the stamens. [Illustration: HORSECHESTNUT SHOOT Page 16 ]