Baumann discovered in 1822, near Geneva, a horse-chestnut tree, of which a single branch bore double flowers; and from this branch the variety was propagated at the Bollweiler nursery in Alsace.[1] The flowers last longer than those of the single kind,[2] and no fruits are formed, which renders it useful as a tree in streets, where the fall of fruits is an inconvenience. This variety is very hardy, and resisted well the severe winter of 1879–80 in France.[3]
2. Var. laciniata (var. asplenifolia, var. incisa). Leaflets cut up into narrow lobes. According to Beissner[4] this variety has been in cultivation for over forty years; and a form of it was found by Herr Henkel of Darmstadt, which keeps its foliage much longer than the typical form; but this is not the case in some localities.
3. Var. crispa. Leaves short-stalked, with broad leaflets. Tree compact in habit.
4. Var. pyramidalis. Upright in habit.
5. Var. umbraculifera. Crown densely branched, and globular in outline.
6. Var. tortuosa. Branches bent and twisted.
7, Var. Memmingeri. Leaves yellowish in colour, looking as if powdered with sulphur.
8. Var. aureo-variegata. Leaves variegated with yellow.
Several other varieties of slight interest, which do not seem to be in cultivation in this country, are mentioned by Schelle.[5]
Distribution and History
The horse-chestnut occurs wild in the mountains of northern Greece. Halácsy,[6] the latest authority, gives many localities in Phthiotis, Eurytania, Thessaly, and Epirus; but states that it is not found wild on Mount Pelion or in Crete. Baldacci,[7] in 1897, found the tree growing wild on almost inaccessible precipices below the lower limit of the coniferous belt near Syrakou in the district of Janina in Albania.
The native country of the tree was long a matter of doubt; but the whole question was satisfactorily elucidated by Heldreich[8] in a paper, from which we extract most of the following account. Linnæus considered the habitat of the tree to be northern Asia, and De Candolle thought that it came from northern India. The tree is, however, not known wild in India, where it is replaced by Æsculus indica. Boissier[9] states that it is recorded from Greece by Sibthorp, from Imeritia (Caucasus) by Eichwald, and from Persia by various authors. It is, however, unknown in the wild state in Persia; and Radde[10] mentions it only as a planted tree
- ↑ Rev. Belgique Horticole, 1854, iv. 216.
- ↑ See Garden, 1890, xxxviii. 601, where some observations are recorded on the periods of flowering of the single and double horse-chestnuts, and of Æsculus carnea.
- ↑ Rev. Horticole, 1884, p. 98.
- ↑ Mitt. Deut. Dendrol. Gesell. 1905, pp. 13, 14, and 1906, p. 10.
- ↑ Handbuch Laubholz-Benennung, 321 (1903).
- ↑ Consp. Fl. Græcæ, i. 291 (1900).
- ↑ Rivista Collez. Botan. in Albania, 23 (Florence, 1897).
- ↑ Verhand. Bot. Vereins Prov. Brandenburg, 1879, p. 139. The British Minister at Athens, Sir F.E.H. Elliot, K.C.M.G., who kindly made inquiries, has sent us a letter from Professor Miliarakis of the University of Athens, dated April 2, 1904, which confirms Heldreich's statements.
- ↑ Flora Orientalis, i. 947 (1867).
- ↑ Pflanzenverbreitung in Kaukasusländern, 433, 434 (1899).
