208 CHINESE ECONOMIC TREES 



ALEURITE3 



Trees with milky juice. Leaves entire, or 3-5 lobed, 5-7 veined, 

 long petioled; petioles with 2 glands at the apex. Flowers in loose 

 cymes, usually monoecious; calyx 2-3, valvate; petals 5; stamens 8-10, 

 the outer row attached to the base of the petals, the inner row monadel- 

 phous; ovary 2-5 celled; cells 1 ovuled ; style . bifid. Fruit large, 

 drupaceous; exocarp fleshy; endocarp bony. Seeds thick shelled. 



6 species, indigenous to Asia and the Pacific Islands, widely 

 distributed and cultivated in the tropics. 



Aleurites fordii Hemsley. 

 Tung Oil Tree. 



Flat topped much branched tree, 3-8 m. tall. Bark smooth, light 

 gray ; petiole glandular ; gland sessile. Leaves glossy green, entire, ovate- 

 cordate, 7-12 cm. long, or 3 lobed and up to 20 cm. long on sterile shoots. 

 Flowers in great profusion on wood of the previous season's growth before 

 the leaves unfold. Flowers large, showy, white, marked with red and 

 yellow, especially at the base of the petals. Petals orbicular ovate, about 

 3 cm. long, glabrous; stamens 8-10; ovary usually 4 celled. Fruit green, 

 apple-like, subglobose and slightly pointed, smooth, 4-5 cm. in diameter. 

 Fibrous exocarp 3.4 mm. thick. Seeds 3-5, compressed, broadly ovate, 

 2-2.5 cm. long, very poisonous. Wood is soft, white, of no use except, 

 perhaps, for fuel. 



Fukien, Yunnan, Hunnan, Kweichow, Hupeh, Szechuan. 



Extensively cultivated. The tree yields the wood oil of commerce. 

 It is estimated that 90% of the wood oil used in the industries, is pro- 

 duced by this single species. The oil is largely exported to the United 

 States of America where it has revolutionized the varnish industry. In 

 China it is used for water proofing cement, for illumination, and many 

 other purposes, and it is also burned for the soot, which is an important 

 ingredient of Chinese ink. Plantations of the wood oil tree are common 

 in the Yangtze valley in the vicinity of Hankow. Clayey banks, rocky 

 hillsides and other waste lands unsuited to the growing of food crops 

 should be more generally planted to this tree. The seeds are sown in 

 seed beds. When the seedlings attain a height of 8 or 10 inches, they 

 are either transplanted in the nurseries or set out directly in the field. 



