G If mil ocladus cci n adcnsis, 



THE CANADIAN GYMNOCLADUS. 



Synonymes. 



GuUandina dioica, 



Gymnocladus canadensis, 



Bonduc, Chiquier, 

 Canadischer Schusserbaum, 

 Gros fevier, 

 Chicot, 



Nicker-tree, Stump-tree, Kentuckj' Coffee- 

 tree, 



Dfriration. The French Canadian name, Chicot, signifies Stump-tree. It was named Coffee-tree by the early settlers of 

 Keulucky, who used the seeds of this tree as a substitute for the coffee of Arabia. 



Engravings. Du Hamel, Traill des Arbres el Arbustes, pi. 103; Micbauz, North American Sylva, pi. 50; Loudon, Arbore- 

 tum Brilannicum, v., pi. 99; and the figures below. 



Specific Characters. Deciduous. Branches blunt at the tip. Leaves bipinnate ; flowers in racemes, with 

 whitish petals. The leaf has 4 7 pinnae, the lower of which consist each of a single leaflet, and the 

 rest each of 6 8 pairs of leaflets. De CandoUe, Prodromus. 



LiNNjKDS, Species Plantarum. 



{La.marck, Encyclopedic Methodique Botanique. 

 Di: Candoi.i.e, JProdronuis. 

 MicHAUx, North American Sylva. 

 Loudon, Arboretum Britannicum. 

 ToRREY AND Gray, Flora of North America. 

 France. 

 Germany. 

 French Illinois. 

 Frencu Canada. 



Britain and Anglo- America 



^j^-.. 

 %^^' 



Description. 



^^^HE Gymnocladus cana- 

 h H 1^ densis is a lofty tree, 

 U ^ growing to a height of 

 ^.^ ^^^ffT^.. ^^^^^ fifty to eighty feet, with 

 a straight trunk, from twelve inches to two feet 

 in diameter, and is often destitute of branches 

 for more than thirty feet. The aspect of its 

 head in winter, is remarkable from being fasti- 

 giate, and possessing but few branches, which 

 are large, thick, and blunt at their tips, in com- 

 parison with those of most other trees, and from 

 being destitute of any visible buds, which latter 

 circumstance, connected with the former, gives 

 the tree the appearance of being dead ; but in 

 summer, when clothed with leaves, its summit 

 forms a dense, oval or roundish mass, which 

 has a fine effect, and may be seen at a great 

 distance. The roots of this tree are few, thick, 

 and directed downwards, in a similar manner as the branches grow upwards. 

 The outer bark of the trunk is extremely rough, and detaches itself, after a cer- 

 tain age, in small, hard, transverse slips, rolled backwards at the end, and pro- 

 jecting sufficiently to distinguish the tree from every other. The leaves, on 

 young, vigorous plants, are three feet long, and twenty inches in width ; but on 

 old trees, of a large size, they are not one half of these dimensions. The leaflets 

 are oval-acuminate, from one to two inches long, of a dull, bluish-green, and the 

 branches of their petioles are of a violet colour. The flowers, which open from 

 May to July, occur in white spikes, of two inches or more in length, the barren 

 and fertile ones being borne on separate trees. The fruit, which consists of large- 



