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The dearth of flowers calls for some comment. So far only 
the Kew authorities and myself have reported the production 
of flowers (male ones in both cases) by Hucommia in this country. 
As they are inconspicuous, they could be easily overlooked by 
anyone not familiar with them and not especially interested in 
the plant. They are produced just before the leaves in late 
April or early May, and the greenish-yellow appearance they 
give the tree might be mistaken for the bursting forth of the 
foliage leaves. This refers to the male (staminate) blooms only, 
but judging from analogy the female (pistillate) ones are likely 
to be even less noticeable. It is therefore quite possible that 
Eucommia may have flowered elsewhere in the British Isles, 
but the occurrence has escaped notice. 
The tree is regarded as dioecious, and if this be correct then 
the offspring arising vegetatively from a single seedling will all 
be of one sex. This might account for the staminate nature of 
the British trees which have been observed to flower; but the 
behaviour of the Eucommias in the Arnold Arboretum suggests 
something more than chance in the non-production of female 
flowers. Professor Sargent informs me that the trees there have 
flowered for a number of years and are all staminate, and that 
he does not know of a pistillate plant in cultivation. Is the tree 
really dioecious? It may be monoecious and if so either climate 
or more likely age may influence the production of female 
flowers, and if so a fresh batch of seedlings may still disappoint 
in producing only male flowers. The plant evidently requires 
further study in China as regards its manner of flowering. 
Economic Possipinities. The cultivation of Hucommia as a 
source of gutta-percha would appear to be a very doubtful 
economic undertaking, even if its gutta were found to be of 
commercial value. Anyone interested in trees and not minding 
expenditure which might never be remunerative, would by 
planting an acre, or even a less area, of this tree afford an 
instructive lesson as regards its sylvicultural possibilities. The 
experiment should preferably be tried in a mild part of the 
kingdom, such as the S.W. of England or of Ireland. There 
would then be little danger of the crippling effect of frost on the 
previous summer’s growth, and at the same time conditions 
would be favourable for the assumption of the tree-rather than 
the bush-habit of growth 
Given a use for the gutta-like substance and quick growth of 
the plant, there would still be drawbacks to be faced in its 
cultivation as an economic tree, viz.:— 
1. The yield from the bark is low. 
2. The gutta is not easily separated mechanically from the 
bark. This, however, might be overcome by engineering 
ingenuity. 
3. As the gutta exists in the dry state in the living plant, © 
o could not be extracted by tapping as in laticiferous trees. 
ence a Hucommia tree could only give a yield of gutta once 
