SWINGLE: CHINESE TREE OF HEAVEN 497 



tillou. 14 Sprouts from the roots of these original trees were used 

 to propagate the species which was common in the nurseries of 

 this country as early as 1841, when Downing published the first 

 edition of his famous work on landscape gardening. 15 



Ailanthus altissima grows like a weed and is in fact a common 

 weed in the towns and villages of the northern United States. 

 Even in the outskirts of New York, Washington, and other large 

 cities it is spreading rapidly over waste land by means of its 

 abundant root sprouts. It is undeniably a handsome tree and 

 grows most luxuriantly even in cities where smoke and dust harm 

 most other trees; furthermore, its foliage is almost immune to 

 attack by insects. The leaves fall suddenly in autumn after the 

 first frosts, exposing the smooth-barked branches which are desti- 

 tute of small lateral twigs. 



Experts have prized the wood of the Tree of Heaven very 

 highly both for fuel and for cabinet-making. They have ranked 

 its wood with that of the white oak, black walnut, and birch for 

 fuel, and considered it as having few superiors among woods in 

 temperate regions as material for the cabinet-maker's use. Its 

 heavy, strong, clear, light-yellow wood does not shrink or warp 

 in drying and although coarse grained it takes a fine polish. It 

 is said to produce wood, even on poor soil, more than twice as 

 fast as any native tree having wood of anything like the same 

 fuel value. 16 



The greatest drawback to this tree is the disagreeable odor 

 of the male flowers, probably carried by the pollen, which is said 

 also to cause irritation of the throat and eyes, to some persons 

 at least. If only fertile trees are propagated, which is easily 

 done by taking suckers from seed-bearing trees, this drawback 

 is in large part overcome, for the fertile trees, although usually 



14 This name cannot at present be traced; it is perhaps a South Chinese name, 

 as the China merchants of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries traded 

 chiefly with Canton. 



15 Downing, A. J. A treatise on the theory and practice of landscape garden- 

 ing, Ed. 1, p. 174. 1841. 



16 [Stiles, William Augustus]. The Ailanthus, [Editorial] in Garden and 

 Forest, 11 : 385-386. 1888. 



