Sophora 41 



distressing symptoms which ensue ; and turners of the wood suffer especially. The 

 active principle resembles the cathartine which occurs in senna leaves. In the 

 botanical garden at Dijon there is a well beneath a Sophora tree, and when its leaves 

 or flowers are about to fall the gardener covers the well, having found by experience 

 that the water acquires laxative properties by the infusion in it of the Sophora leaves 

 or flowers.^ 



The wood, according to Shirasawa (I.e.), differs remarkably in the colour of the 

 heart-wood and sap-wood ; the specific gravity is in dry air 0.74. It is tough and 

 durable, though light and coarse grained ; and the annular layers are marked by 

 broad bands of open cells. In Japan it is used for the pillars and frames of their 

 wooden houses, but is not of sufficient importance to have been included in the 

 Japanese Forestry exhibit at St. Louis, nor is it mentioned in Goto's Handbook of the 

 Forestry of Japan as a valuable wood. 



Introduction 



Petiver^ [y'jo^y or a little earlier) speaks of " Hai-hoa, Chinensibus, flare albjo, 

 siliquis gummosis articulatis" evidently the Sophora, and it is probable that the 

 specimen was collected in the island of Chusan by Cunningham in 1700. 



Desfontaines,^ quoting Guerrapain,* states that the tree was first raised in Europe 

 from seeds sent by Pere d'Incarville (a Jesuit stationed at Peking) in 1747, the first 

 trees being planted at the Petit Trianon by B. de Jussieu. It was unknown to what 

 genus the tree belonged, until it flowered near Paris in 1779. It was introduced in 

 1753 into England by James Gordon, a celebrated nurseryman at Mile End.* Mr. 

 Nicholson obtained from Mr. James Smith, former curator of Kew Gardens, some 

 interesting details concerning the Kew trees. Five plants were early planted at Kew, 

 all of which were still there in 1864, but two no longer exist. One of the three 

 trees remaining is near the rockery ; not far off is the famous specimen in chains, while 

 the third tree is in the village at Kew beside the house once occupied by Mr. Alton, 

 the first director of the Kew Gardens. These three trees, according to Mr. Nicholson,^ 

 are probably as old as any existing elsewhere in England. There is, however, another 

 tree at Kew beyond the Pagoda of which there is no history. 



Cultivation 

 Sophora japonica is an ornamental tree, the peculiarities of which make it 

 interesting. The leaves are dark, glossy green, of an unusual tint, and the younger 

 branchlets are of the same colour. The leaves fall very late in autumn, and keep on 



Loudon (ii. 564), quoting from Duhamel, states that the bark and green wood of this tree exhales a strong odour 

 which produces on those who prune it a remarkable effect. A plank cut from a tree at Kew in Elwes' possession shows a 

 hard, compact, yellowish brown wood. 



* Petiver, Musei Petiveriani Centuria decern rariora Natura continens, No. 930 (1692- 1 703). 



' Dcsfontaines, Hhtoire des Arbres, ii. 258 (1809). * Guerrapain, Notice sur la culture du Sophora. 



' Hort. Kew, first edition (1789), ii. 45. In Andrews Repository, ix. 585, there is a figure of a specimen from a tree 

 40 feet high in the collection of John Ord at Purser's Cross, Fulham, which was planted by him forty years before. Ord is 

 stoted to have received his jilants from Gordon, " who introduced the species from China in 1753." It is also stated that the 

 Sophora first flowered in England at Syon in August 1797. Loudon, however {loc. cit.), states that " the oldest tree near 

 London is at Purser's Cross, where it flowered for the first time in England in August 1807." 



' Nicholson in Woods and Forests (1884), p. 500, 

 I G 



