181 
To get reliable tests as to strength, bey J should need a good 
deal more of the material than I have.’ 
ince then it has been found that saneaatnllg: extracted 
EHucommia gutta soon becomes brittle with age, which woul 
render it well nigh useless for electrical purposes. 
MepicinaL Proprerties. Hucommia bark is held in high 
esteem as a medicine by-the Chinese and is said to have invigorat- 
ing and arthritic properties; but it is doubtful whether the bark 
really contains any principle of therapeutic value. A cursory 
examination of the dry bark from this point of view has resulted 
in the extraction of only a minute quantity (0-038 per cent.) of 
presumed alkaloid. 
The Chinese believe in the doctrine of signatures, which 
asserts that a plant shows some resemblance to the organ of 
the body, for the disease of which it is useful; and the peculiar 
threads in this bark may have suggested its use as a drug to the 
Chinese. 
The writer has still a little bark and some dried leaves at 
his disposal should anyone care to investigate Hucommia further 
from the medicinal aspect. 
GROWTH AND BEHAVIOUR OF THE TREE IN THE British Isuzs. 
France was the first European country to receive the living plant 
from China—apparently about 1890. Kew obtained in 1897 one 
Eucommia plant from M. Maurice de Vilmorin. This flowered 
for the first time in 1909 and proved to be a male tree, The 
other trees there have been propagated vegetatively from the 
original one. Some years ago information was supplied by 
Kew* respecting the hardihood, cultivation, and propagation 
by cuttings of Hucommia. Last winter Mr. W. J. Bean kindly 
furnished me with up- -to-date details ghee: the trees at 
Kew. He wrote as follows :—“ At present we have four trees 
viz., the original one which never having been trained, has 
remained bushy and comparatively low; and*three trees raised 
from cuttings taken from the original tree. The largest of these 
is now about 23 feet high, its trunk 22 inches in girth and clear 
of branches up to 7 or 8 feet. The other two have trunks 21 
and 16 inches in girth respectively.”” He proceeds to say that 
pruning and training were found to be necessary to produce 
the tree-form in Hucommia, but thinks that if they were planted 
close enough they would form trees naturally. 
e Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh,f possess two trees. 
They were raised from Wilson’s seed, No. 383, and were planted 
in their present position in 1911 in prepared ground on a lawn. 
They now measuret respectively in height 8 and 5 feet and in 
girth ms; and 4 inches. They are bushy and have not yet 
flower 
* Gardeners’ Chronicle, xxxiii, 1903, p. 104. Kew Bulletin, 1904. p. 4. 
+ From information supplied by the Regius Keeper, dated 9.xii.20. 
t The measurements recorded in this paper were taken packs cone 
last winter (1920-21). 
