554 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



to single leaflets; piniise and leaflets usually alternate; stipules foliaceous, early 

 deciduous; leaflets membranaceous, ovate, entire, petiolulate. Flowers regular, 

 dioecious, greenish white, long-pedicellate, the slender pedicels from the axils of 

 long lanceolate scarious caducous bracts, bibracteolate near the middle; staniinate in 

 a short terminal racemose corymb; pistillate in elongated terminal racemes, on 

 pedicels much longer than those of the staminate flowers; calyx tubular, elongated, 

 10-ribbed, lined with a thin glandular disk, 5-lobed, lanceolate, acute, nearly equal, 

 erect; petals 4 or 5, oblong, rounded or acute at the apex, pubescent, as long as the 

 calyx-lobes or rather longer and twice as broad, inserted on the margin of the disk, 

 spreading or reflexed; stamens 10, free, inserted with the petals, erect, included; 

 filaments filiform, pilose, those opposite the petals shorter than the others; anthers 

 oblong, uniform, small and sterile in the pistillate flower; ovary sessile or slightly 

 stipitate, acute; styles short, erect, obliquely dilated into 2 broad lobes stigmatic on 

 their inner surface, rudimentary or in the sterile flower; ovules numerous, sus- 

 pended from the angle opposite the posterior petals. Legume oblong, subfalcate, 

 turgid or slightly compressed, several-seeded, 2-valved, tardily dehiscent, the thin 

 tough woody valves thickened on the margins into narrow wings, pulpy between the 

 seeds. Seeds ovoid or slightly obovoid, suspended by long slender funicles; seed-coat 

 thick, bony, brown and opaque, of 3 layers; embryo surrounded by a thin layer of 

 horny albumen; cotyledons ovate, orange-colored, thick and fleshy, the radicle short, 

 erect. 



Gymnocladus, with two species, is confined to eastern North America and to south- 

 ern China. 



Gymnocladus is slightly astringent and purgative, and the detersive pulp sur- 

 rounding the seeds of the Asiatic species is used in China as a substitute for soap. 



The generic name, from yvfxvds and /cAaSos, relates to the stout branches destitute 

 of spray. 



1. Gymnocladus dioicus, K. Koch. Kentucky Coffee-tree. 



Leaves l-3 long, 18-24' wide, obovate, 5-9 pinnate, the pinnae 6-14-foliolate, 

 covered when they unfold with hoary tomentum except on the upper surface of the 

 leaflets, their petioles abruptly and conspicuously enlarged at the base, at first hoary- 

 tomentose, becoming glabrous at maturity, turning bright clear yellow in the autumn 

 before falling; stipules lanceolate or slightly obovate, glandular-serrate toward the 

 apex, \' long; leaflets ovate, acute, often mucronate, especially while young, wedge- 

 shaped or irregularly rounded at the base, pink at first, soon becoming bronze-green 

 and lustrous, glabrous on the upper surface with the exception of a few scattered 

 hairs along the midribs, and at maturity membranaceous, obscurely veined, dark 

 green above, pale yellow-green and glabrous below, with the exception of a few short 

 hairs scattered along the narrow midribs, 2'-2i' long and V wide, or those replacing 

 the lowest or occasionally the 2 lower pairs of pinnre sometimes twice as large. 

 Flowers: inflorescence of the staminate tree 3'-4' long, the lower branches usually 

 3 or 4-flowered ; inflorescence of the pistillate tree 10'-12' long, the flowers on stout 

 pedicels l'-2^' long or twice to five times as long as those of the staminate flowers; 

 flowers hoary-tomentose in the bud; calyx ' long, conspicuously ribbed, covered on 

 the outer surface when the flowers open with pale hairs and on the inner surface with 

 hoary tomentum; petals keeled, pilose on the back, slightly grooved, tomentose on 

 the inner surface; anthers bright orange color; ovary hairy. Fruit 6'-10' long, 1\'- 

 2' wide, dark red-brown, covered with a glaucous bloom, on stout stalks l'-2' long, 



