1873. ] 



MAC'LURA THICUSPIDATA. 



233 



the coddling of weak flowers in the spring. The former must be done, wliile 

 the latter may not with impunity be left undone. — D. T. Fish, Hardivicke. 



MACLURA TRICUSPIDATA. 



'he following account of this ornamental hardy deciduous tree is abridged 

 V\j,t]) from the Revue Hurticole^ to which source we arealso indebted for the illus- 

 trations. The plant is one of those which, like the Ivy and others, takes on 

 two distinct forms, the one characteristic of infancy, the other of maturity. 

 The figure on p. 232 represents jracbira tricuspidata in its state of infancy, 

 as growing in the French gardens in 18G4, two years after its introduction from 

 China. That subjoined represents an adult branch of the same species, bearing 



.^'-4^aiv.^^^^^^^^^ 



AlAOLUKA TRICUSPIDATA (mature female). 



female flowers, cut frofn the same mother-stock from wliich, seven years previously, 

 the branch represented by the opposite figure had been taken. M. Carriere now 

 gives the following description of the plant in its matured character : — 



It is a small diclinous tree or shrub, of bushy habit, much branched, with 

 divaricate branches, a greenish-white milky juice exuding from its herbaceous 

 parts when broken. The branches are pendent or spreading, spiny in the young 

 state, spineless in adults. The leaves are caducous, coriaceous, thick, dark 

 green, shining as if varnished ; those of the young trees being three-lobed ; while 

 those of the adult trees are oval, broadly rounded, and sometimes cucullate. The 

 male flowers are not known. The female flowers are united into small sub- 

 spherical heads, about two-fifths of an inch in diameter, solitarj' or sometimes 

 aggregated in the leaf axils ; these flowers expand in July and August, and have 



