778 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



iiants of the style; flesh thin and dry; stone thick- walled, crustaceous. Seed filling ^ 

 the cavity of the stone, ovoid; seed-coat chestniit-brovvn; cotyledons flat, longer than 

 the short terete superior radicle turned toward the hiluni. 



Chionanthus with two species inhabits the middle and southern United States, 

 and northern and central China. 



The specific name, from x"^' a,nd &vdot, is in allusion to the light and graceful 

 clusters of snow-white flowers. 



1. Chionanthus Virginica, L. Fringe-tree. Old Man's Beard. 



Leaves ovate or oblong, acuminate, short-pointed or sometimes rounded at the 

 apex, gradually narrowed below, entire, with undulate margins, and coarsely reticu- 

 late-venulose, when they unfold yellow-green and lustrous above, pubescent below, 

 and ciliate on the margins, and at maturity 4'-8' long, ^'-A! wide, thick and firm, 

 dark green on the upper, pale and glabrous on the lower surface except along the 

 stout midribs and conspicuous arcuate primary veins more or less covered with short 

 white hairs, turning bright clear yellow before falling early in the autumn; their 

 petioles stout, puberulous, ^'-V long. Flo"wers slightly and agreeably fragrant, 

 appearing when the leaves are about one third grown, in loose pubescent drooping 

 panicles 4'-6' in length, the bracts at the base of the lower branches of the inflores- 

 cence oblong, glabrous on the upper, pubescent on the lower surface, and sometimes 



1' long, those at the base of the upper branches oval, successively smaller, and grad- 

 nally passing into the minute laciniate bracts subtending the lateral pedicels of the 

 3-flowered clusters terminating the last divisions of the panicle; some individuals 

 bearing flowers functionally perfect, others flowers with sterile anthers and well- 

 developed stigmas, and others flowers with imperfectly developed stigmas and fertile 

 anthers; calyx light green, glabrous, with acute entire or laciniately cut lobes; corolla 

 1' long, marked on the inner surface near the base by a row of bright purple spots; 

 anthers light yellow, with a green connective. Fruit ripening in September, in loose 

 few-fruited clusters, with leaf-like bracts sometimes 2' in length, oval or oblong, 1' 

 long, dark blue or nearly black, and often covered with a glaucous bloom; seeds y 

 long, ovate, narrowed at the apex and covered with a thin light chestnut-brown coat 

 marked by reticulate veins radiating from the hilum. 



A tree, 20-30 high, with a short trunk 8-10' in diameter, stout ashy gray or light 



