N. ORD.—SIMARUBACE. 35 
Tribe.—SIMARUBEZ. 
GENUS.—AILANTHUS,* DESF. 
SEX. SYST.—MONCECIA POLYGAMIA. 
AILANTUS. 
TREE OF HEAVEN. 
SYN.—AILANTHUS GLANDULOSUS, DESF. 
COM. NAMES.—TREE OF HEAVEN, CHINESE AILANTHUS, TILLOW TREE, 
CHINESE SUMACH; (FR.) AILANTE, VERNIS DES JAPON;+ (GER,) 
GOTTERBAUM. : 
A TINCTURE OF THE FRESH BARK AND FLOWERS OF AILANTHUS 
GLANDULOSUS, DESF. 
Description.—This beautiful tree, which so much resembles an overgrown 
staghorn sumach, grows in this country to a height of from 30 to 60 feet. Stem 
erect, columnar, much branched; wood hard, heavy and glossy, like satin. Leaves 
long, odd-pinnately compound; fetoles 1 to 2 feet long; /eaflets oblong, pointed, 
with two blunt teeth at the base, rendering them somewhat hastate ; ¢ee/h glandu- 
lar upon the under surface. J/xflorescence in large terminal thyrsoid panicles ; 
flowers greenish, diceciously-polygamous. Calyx 5-toothed. /eéa/s 5, inserted 
under an hypogynous disk. Stamens 10; filaments inflated and hairy at the base ; 
anthers 2-celled. Ovary 5-lobed; style columnar ; stigma capitate, radiately 5-lobed. 
Fruit composed of from 2 to 5 long, thin, somewhat twisted, linear-oblong, veiny, 
1-celled, 1-seeded samaras. 
Simarubacess.—This small family of mostly tropical trees and shrubs, is rep- 
resented in North America by 7 genera of 1 species each, The characteristics 
of the order are as follows: Bark bitter. Leaves alternate, pinnately-compound ; 
stipules none. Flowers hermaphrodite or unisexual. Ca/yx persistent; sepals 4. 
to 5. Corolla deciduous, twisted in zstivation ; pefals 4 to 5, hypogynous. Stamens — 
as many or twice as many as the petals; filaments inserted upon an hypogynous: 
disk. Ovary composed of 4 to 5 lobes ; ovules suspended, 1 in each cell ; style 
various. Carpels 2-valved, as many as the petals, capsular or keyed; sezds pendu- : 
lous; albumen none; cotyledons thick ; vadicle short, superior. ee 
The only proven plants of this order, excepting the one under consideration, 
are: the tropical-American Cedron (Simaba Cedron, Planch), and the South- 
American Quassia or Dysentery-bark (Simarouba amara, Aubl.), the bark of 
which was once a noted remedy in dysentery. 
* The name should be spelled, At/antus, being derived from a Moluccian species called Ai/anto, — 
+ Also used to designate Rhus vernix. 
