45 o The Trees of Great Britain and Irejand 



It is propagated either by seed or by root-cuttings. At Kew it is rather a 

 shrub than a tree, and produces flowers when quite young, which appear late in the 

 season, in the end of July or the beginning of August. It ripens its fruit in October, 

 the pods remaining on the tree during winter. 



The timber, according to Shirasawa, is hard and tenacious, and is used in 

 building and in making furniture. Elwes purchased planks of it at Sapporo, which 

 are of a yellowish-brown colour, and seem to be of good quality for cabinet-making. 



(A. H.) 



CLADRASTIS SINENSIS 



Cladrastis sinensis, Hemsley, ybr. Linn. Soc. (Bot.) xxix. 304 (1892). 



A tree attaining 70 feet in height and 10 feet in girth. Young shoots rusty 

 pubescent towards the base. Leaflets nine to eleven, alternate, entire, oblong - 

 lanceolate, obtuse or acute at the apex ; broad and rounded, rarely cuneate, at the 

 base ; lower surface with appressed pubescence most marked towards the base and 

 along the midrib. Leaf-rachis pubescent, with swollen base enclosing two or three 

 buds. Leaf-scars on older shoots, oblique on prominent pulvini, orbicular ; the raised 

 circular rim, discontinuous above, surrounding a central densely pubescent depres- 

 sion, in which lie two or three buds, the upper one of which is the largest. 



Flowers pinkish-white, fragrant, in large terminal, rusty-pubescent panicles. 

 Calyx rusty-pubescent ; teeth short, broad, rounded. Petals long-clawed, erect, 

 free ; standard broadly obovate, bifid ; wings and keel-petals oblong. Stamens 

 slightly connate at the base ; ovary pubescent. Pod linear-oblong, flattened, with 

 thickened margins. 



This tree, which resembles Sophora japonica in habit and foliage, was discovered 

 by Pratt, in 1890, in Western Szechuan, where E. H. Wilson subsequently saw 

 large trees at 7000 feet altitude in the Hsiang Ling range, west of Mt. Omei. It 

 also occurs in the high mountains of the Fang district in Hupeh, from whence 

 seeds were sent home by Wilson in 1901. Plants raised at Coombe Wood were, in 

 1906, 5 feet high, and for so far have proved perfectly hardy. The tree has beautiful 

 flowers, and, growing at high altitudes in western China, should thrive in this 

 country. (A. H.) 



Printed ^ R. & R. Clakk, Limitid, Edmhurgh. 



