Gymnocladus canadensis, 
THE CANADIAN GYMNOCLADUS. 
Synonyrnes. 
Linnjeus, Species Plantarum. 
(Lamarck, Encyclopedie Methodique Botanique. 
De Candolle, Prodromus. 
Michaux, North American Sylva. 
I Loudon, Arboretum Britannicum. 
[ Torrey and Gray, Flora of North America. 
France. 
Germany. 
French Illinois. 
French Canada. 
Britain and Anglo- America 
Guilandina dioica, 
Gymnocladus canadensis, 
Bonduc, Chiquier, 
Canadischer Schusserbaum, 
Gros fevier, 
Chicot, 
Nicker-tree, Stump-tree, Kentucky Coffee 
tree, 
Derivation. The French Canadian name, Chicot, signifies Stump-tree. It was named Coffee-tree by the early settlers of 
Kentucky, who used the seeds of this tree as a substitute for the coffee of Arabia. 
Du Hamel, Traits des Arbres et Arbustes, pi. 103 ; Michaux, North American Sylva, pi. 50 ; Loudon, Arbore- 
tum Britannicum, v., pi. 99; and the figures below. 
Engravings. 
iBri 
Specific Characters. Deciduous. Branches blunt at the tip. Leaves bipinnate ; flowers in racemes, with 
whitish petals. The leaf has 4 7 pinnae, the lower of which consist each of a single leaflet, and the 
rest each of 6 8 pairs of leaflets. De Candolle, Prodromus. 
Description. 
Gymnocladus cana- 
densis is a lofty tree, 
growing to a height of 
~*J&*m*. II^KSll fifty to eighty feet, with 
a straight trunk, from twelve inches to two feet 
in diameter, and is often destitute of branches 
for more than thirty feet. The aspect of its 
head in winter, is remarkable from being fasti- 
giate, and possessing but few branches, which 
are large, thick, and blunt at their tips, in com- 
parison with those of most other trees, and from 
being destitute of any visible buds, which latter 
circumstance, connected with the former, gives 
the tree the appearance of being dead ; but in 
summer, when clothed with leaves, its summit 
forms a dense, oval or roundish mass, which 
has a fine effect, and may be seen at a great 
distance. The roots of this tree are few, thick, 
and directed downwards, in a similar manner as the branches grow upwards. 
The outer bark of the trunk is extremely rough, and detaches itself, after a cer- 
tain age, in small, hard, transverse slips, rolled backwards at the end, and pro- 
jecting sufficiently to distinguish the tree from every other. The leaves, on 
young, vigorous plants, are three feet long, and twenty inches in width ; but on 
old trees, of a large size, they are not one half of these dimensions. The leaflets 
are oval-acuminate, from one to two inches long, of a dull, bluish-green, and the 
branches of their petioles are of a violet colour. The flowers, which open from 
May to July, occur in white spikes, of two inches or more in length, the barren 
and fertile ones being borne on separate trees. The fruit, which consists of large- 
