| |100 feet tall, with trunks
| | |3 or 4 feet in diameter,
| | |are not uncommon. These
| | |were, perhaps, the largest
| | |deciduous trees on the main
| | |island growing naturally in
| | |the forest--that is, which
| | |had not been planted by
| | |men--and their escape from
| | |destruction was probably
| | |due to their inaccessible
| | |position, and to the fact
| | |that the wood of the horse
| | |chestnut is not
| | |particularly valued by the
| | |Japanese. In habit, and in
| | |the form, venation, and
| | |colouring of the leaves,
| | |the Japanese horse chestnut
| | |resembles the horse
| | |chestnut of our gardens,
| | |the Grecian Aesculus
| | |Hippocastanum, and at first
| | |sight it might easily be
| | |mistaken for that tree, but
| | |the thyrsus of flowers of
| | |the Japanese species, which
| | |is 10 or 12 inches long,
| | |and only 2-1/2 to 3 inches
| | |broad, is more slender; the
| | |flowers are smaller, and
| | |pale yellow, with short,
| | |nearly equal, petals,
| | |ciliate on the margins; and