STACHYURUS STAPHYLEA 547 



S. pnecox. The racemes and flowers are to all intents the same, but 

 the fruits, which I have not seen, are said to be smaller than in S. praecox. 

 It flowers at Kew about a fortnight later than S. prsecox, but up to the 

 present not so freely. 



When planting out either of these species it is advisable to mix peat 

 and leaf-soil with the loam, especially if the last be of a heavy nature. 

 S. praecox can be propagated easily by cuttings made of fairly firm wood 

 in July with a "heel" attached, and placed in gentle heat, also by 

 division. 



STAPHYLEA. BLADDER-NUT. STAPHYLEACE^E. 



A genus of deciduous bushes occasionally large enough to be 

 considered small trees, with opposite, trifoliolate or pinnate leaves, 

 usually made up of three or five leaflets. The flowers are produced 

 in terminal racemes or panicles, and are of some shade of white; 

 the sepals, petals, and stamens five. The most distinctive feature of 

 the germs is the fruit a membranous, inflated, two- or three-celled 

 capsule. 



The bladder-nuts are planted in gardens for the beauty of the 

 foliage and flowers, and for their interesting fruits. All those given 

 separate mention below are hardy, with the exception of S. Bumalda, 

 which suffers in hard winters. Their needs are simple a good, loamy, 

 moist soil and a fairly sunny spot. They can be increased by cuttings. 

 All flower in May. 



Besides the species of which a more detailed account is given below, 

 the two following may be briefly mentioned : 



S. BOLANDERI, A. Gray. A native of N. California; discovered in 

 1874, on a branch of the Sacramento River, near Mount Shasta. It has 

 three oval or roundish, smooth, short-pointed leaflets, up to 2\ ins. long; 

 greenish white flowers, capsules three-celled, z\ ins. long. I have not 

 met with it in gardens. 



S. EMODI, Wallich. Native of the North-western Himalaya. A shrub 

 or small tree with trifoliolate leaves, each leaflet 3 to 6 ins. long ; flowers 

 white, in rather dense cymes, ij to 4 ins. wide. Capsules 2 to 3 ins. 

 long. This bladder-nut is allied to S. trifolia, but has less downy leaves, 

 whose margins are simply and less conspicuously toothed. Plants under 

 the name have recently been distributed from nurseries. 



The bladder-nuts have a rather remarkable distribution over the 

 North Temperate Zone. They spread all round the world, but most of 

 the species have each their own separate area. Thus, starting at home, 

 we have S. pinnata, which extends through Europe to Asia Minor, then 

 come S. colchica in the Caucasus, and S. Emodi in the Himalaya and 

 Afghanistan. Crossing into China, there is S. holocarpa (and perhaps one 

 or two more species) ; then S. Bumalda carries the genus to the western 

 shores of the Pacific. Across that ocean the roll is taken up on the 

 western side of N. America by S. Bolanderi, and on the Atlantic side by 

 S. trifolia. 



