SWINGLE: CHINESE TREE OF HEAVEN 491 



able that he frequently got headache and a sickness at the stom- 

 ach by remaining too long near it. In the summer of 1755 he 

 measured a leaf 3 feet in length and also notes that the tree 

 "throws out a great number of suckers." The base and tip of 

 a leaf are figured and the leaflets show near the base the promi- 

 nent dentation characteristic of the Tree of Heaven and quite 

 unlike the lacquer tree (Rhus vernicifera DC.) or the false lacquer 

 tree (Rhus succedanea L.). 



Philip Miller replied to Ellis, in a paper published in the 

 Philosophical Transactions two years later, 4 attributing the dis- 

 crepancies between the leaf characters of Kaempfer's spurious 

 varnish tree, the "Fast no hi" of Japan, and the tree grown from 

 the seeds sent from China by Pierre dTncarville to the differ- 

 ence in situation of the leaves, those of Kaempfer's figure being 

 supposed to be on fruiting branches, while those figured from 

 the tree in Mr. Webb's garden were taken from lower branches. 

 He goes on to cast doubt on the idea of the tree belonging to 

 Rhus, as the seeds he planted "were shaped like a wedge, being 

 thicker on one edge than the other, and not unlike those of the 

 beech-tree." 5 



Ellis, in turn, replied to Miller's criticism in the same number 

 of the Philosophical Transactions (pp. 441-456, pis. 17-18), de- 

 fending his view that the American poison sumac, the Japanese 

 true varnish tree, the Japanese false varnish tree, and the so- 

 called Chinese varnish tree are all different species, and in par- 



4 Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. GO 1 : 430-440. 1758. 



5 This would indicate that the seeds had been removed from the indehiscent 

 winged fruit. Perhaps this unusual method of treating the seeds may have been 

 to deceive dTncarville, who supposed he was sending seeds of the lacquer or 

 varnish tree from Nanking when in reality he was sending seeds of the Tree of 

 Heaven, disguised by having been removed from the fruits. The herbarium of 

 dTncarville, now in the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle at Paris, contains speci- 

 mens of Ailanthus glandulosa Desf. collected at Peking, with a note: "Cet arbre 

 resemble au Frene, mais le fleur ny le fruit conviennent point au Frene, son fruit 

 resemble plus tost a l'Erable." (Franchet. Les plantes du pere d'lncarville 

 dans V herbier du Museum d'histoire naturelle de Paris. Bull. Soc. Bot. France, 

 29: 7. 1882.) 



As dTncarville noted the similarity of these fruits to those of the maple he 

 would doubtless not have been deceived by the Ailanthus seeds had they not 

 been taken out of the fruit. 



