434 ^^^ Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



caudate-acuminate ; margin repand, minutely ciliate, distantly and minutely serrate 

 or with occasional short teeth ; nerves, fifteen to eighteen pairs, usually dividing 

 and forming loops close to the margin ; upper surface dark green, glabrous ; lower 

 surface pale green, glabrescent. 



Flowers fragrant, in pubescent terminal panicles, which are a foot or more in 

 length ; pedicels short. Calyx with five short, rounded, ciliate lobes. Petals five, 

 white, oblong, sub- cordate at the base, converging at the apex. Stamens five, 

 alternating with five staminodes. Fruit about an inch long ; valves, opening 

 longitudinally from above downwards. Seed with an oblong wing attached to its- 

 upper side, the wing two to three times as long as the body of the seed. 



In summer the large pinnate leaves give the tree much the appearance of 

 Ailanthus ; but the bark is different, and the leaflets of Cedrela are devoid of the 

 glandular teeth near the base, which are so characteristic of Ailanthus. In winter 

 the following characters are available (Plate 126, fig. 2) : 



Twigs stout, brown, minutely pubescent ; lenticels small, scattered ; pith white, 

 circular in section. Leaf-scars large, alternate, slightly raised, obcordate or oval, 

 with five bundle-dots. Terminal bud, much larger than the others, broadly conical, 

 of four to six triangular scales, which are swollen externally and hollowed inter- 

 nally, brown, shining, with acuminate pubescent tips. Lateral buds minute, solitary, 

 inserted immediately above the leaf-scars, hemispherical, showing three to five 

 shining brown scales. 



Lubbock,^ who gives a detailed account of the structure and development of the 

 buds, the scales of which are modified leaves, states that the terminal bud usually 

 dies in winter, but sometimes lives, and then is always later in developing in spring 

 than the lateral buds. 



Cedrela sinensis is a native of northern and western China. It is very common 

 in the neighbourhood of Peking, and was found in Kansuh, beyond the Great Wall, 

 by Piasetski. According to von Rosthorn and Wilson, it is wild in the forests of 

 the province of Szechuan. It is commonly cultivated in central China, where it never 

 attains a great size, mainly because the Chinese spoil its growth by lopping off in 

 spring the young shoots, which are much esteemed as food. These are eaten after 

 being chopped and fried in oil. The tree is known to the Chinese as the hsiang- 

 ch'un^ The timber is good, reddish in colour, and often used in making furniture. 



The tree was first made known to Europeans by Pere d'Incarville, who sent 

 dried specimens from Peking to Paris in 1743. In China it has been well known 

 from classical times, and references to it occur in the earliest Chinese literature. 



Cedrela sinensis was introduced in 1862 by Simon, who sent a living plant from 

 Peking to the Museum at Paris, which was described by Carriere in 1865 as 

 Ailanthus flavescens. On the tree flowering in 1875 it was recognised to be Cedrela 

 sinensis. This tree, which was planted in the nursery attached to the garden of the 

 Museum, had attained in 1891 a height of 40 feet ; and, when Elwes saw it in 1905, 

 it was very little taller, and about 4 feet in girth. 



Many trees have been raised in the vicinity of Paris, both by seed and by root- 



' /cunt. linn. .%oc. {Bof.), xxx. 478 (1894). * Cf. name given to Ailanthus, p. 32. 



