262 PTEROCARYA 



trunk of large trees 10 to 12 ft. in girth, with deeply furrowed bark ; ends of 

 young shoots minutely scurfy. Leaves 8 to 18 ins. (sometimes over 2 ft.) 

 long, composed of from three and a half to thirteen and a half pairs of 

 leaflets ; these are stalkless, oblong, obliquely rounded at the base, pointed, 

 toothed, normally 2 to 4^ ins. long by -f to if ins. wide (occasionally, on 

 vigorous shoots, 8 or 9 ms. long) ; dark green, smooth and glossy above, 

 tufted with stellate hairs along the midrib beneath ; common stalk round 

 Male catkins 3 to 5 ins. long, cylindrical, the flowers closely packed ; 

 female catkins 12 to 20 ins. long, with the flowers scattered ; both pendulous ; 

 afterwards developing nuts which, with the wings, are f in. in diameter, 

 roundish, oblique, horned at the top. 



Native of the Caucasus and Persia, inhabiting moist places. It was 

 introduced to France by the elder Michaux, who took back seeds from Persia 

 in 1782. According to Elwes, the finest specimen in Britain is at Melbury, in 

 Dorset, which is 90 ft. high and 12 ft. in girth of trunk. There is a beautiful 

 specimen at Claremont, Surrey, which, when I saw it in 1910, measured 19 ft. 

 round its short, rugged trunk. This tree likes a rich loamy soil and abundant 

 moisture, and whilst the fine specimens mentioned above show that it will 

 thrive very well in the south of England, it loves more sunshine than our 

 climate affords. The lover of trees will find nothing more interesting in and 

 around Vienna than the magnificent examples of Pterocarya caucasica. 

 There, of course, the summers are much hotter, and the winters colder than 

 ours ; the tree bears fruit freely, and is very striking in late summer when 

 hung with the long slender catkins. 



Var. DUMOSA, C. K. Schneider (P. dumosa, Lavalle'e\ A shrubby variety 

 of dwarf habit, with small leaflets 2 or 3 ins. long. Although first noticed in 

 the Arboretum of the late Mr Lavallee at Segrez, in France, this is apparently 

 a truly wild form, judging by the following statement of 'the late Jean Van 

 Volxem : 



" The country around Lagodechi (in the Caucasus) is very interesting. Near the 

 river are extensive swamps, where I saw P. caucasica growing sometimes as an enormous 

 tree, sometimes as a large shrubby bush. The two forms are intermixed with each 

 other, so that no condition of soil or exposure can explain the fact, and there is, as far 

 as I saw, no intermediate form, and I could detect no difference between the two forms 

 except as to habit and size." (Gardeners' Chronicle, 1877, ! P- 7 2 -) 



P. HUPEHENSIS, Skan. HUPEH WlNG-NUT. 



A tree 70 ft. or more high, with smooth, minutely glandular young shoots. 

 Leaves 7 to 12 ins. long, composed of five to eleven (perhaps more) leaflets, 

 which are oval-lanceolate, oblong, or slightly obovate, pointed, obliquely 

 rounded at the base, toothed ; \\ to 5 ins. long, f to 2 ins. wide ; smooth 

 except for tufts of brownish down in the vein-axils beneath ; common stalk 

 downy, roundish, not winged. The fruiting catkin is 12 to 1 8 ins. long, each 

 nut with a pair of roundish wings, the whole rather more than i in. across. 



Native of the mountains of Hupeh, China ; discovered by Henry in 1888, 

 and introduced by Wilson for Messrs Veitch in 1901. The young trees 

 appear to be quite hardy. The species is closely allied to P. caucasica ; so 

 far as we know at present it has not so many leaflets on each leaf, and they 

 are slightly stalked. The base of the blade of the leaflet does not overlap 

 the main -stalk as it usually does in P. caucasica. 



P. PALIURUS, Batalin. 



A tree 50 or more feet high, the young shoots downy, glandular. Leaves 

 8 to 12 ins. long, composed usually of seven or nine leaflets, which are oblong 



