210 CHINESE ECONOMIC TREES 



American investigators advocate spacing the trees 20 by 20 feet 

 apart, giving a total of 108 trees to the acre. The trees begin to produce 

 seeds in 4 to 5 years and continue to bear effectively for 50 years or more. 

 The average annual yield is from 30-75 lbs. per tree. The fruit is from 

 2-3 inches in diameter, each containing several seeds, usually 5 in 

 number. The oil content is about 24% of the substance of the seed. 

 The United States Department of Agriculture is endeavoring to establish 

 the wood oil industry in America, and unless Chinese planters make a 

 systematic effort to increase the yield and improve the quality of their 

 product, the great American market will soon be closed to them. 



Aleurites cordata R. Brown. 



Tree to 10 m. tall. Gland of petiole stalked. Leaves broadly ovate, 

 acuminate, 3-5 lobed or toothed. Petals oblong, 2 cm. long, hairy at 

 the base. Fruit rough, warty. Seeds the size of large castor beans. 



S. China, cultivated in Japan. Less hardy than the preceding 

 species. 



Aleurites montana Wilson, is a third species allied to A. fordii 

 but differing chiefly in the fruit, which is egg-shaped, marked with 3 

 longitudinal and many transverse ridges. The pistillate inflorescence is 

 racemose and the inflorescences are said to be more strictly unisexual. 



S. China. Limited distribution. 



MALLOTUS 



Trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate or opposite, entire, serrate or 

 lobed, often glandular. Flowers dioecious or monoecious, small, 

 ^petalous, in spikes or panicles; staminate flowers clustered; calyx 3-5 

 parted, valvate; stamens 20-30 or more; ovary rudimentary or absent. 

 Pistillate flowers solitary in the bract ; calyx 35 parted or lobed ; ovary 

 2-4 celled; style free or partly connate, spreading or recurved, plumose 

 or papillose; ovules 1 in each cell. Fruit capsular, separating into 2-3, 

 2 valved cocci. Valves smooth, warty or spiny. Seeds ovoid-oblong or 

 globose, bony. 



About 80 species in the tropics of the old world. 



Mallotus tenuifolius Pax. 



Shrub or small tree. Leaves alternate, membranous, triangular 

 orbicular, abruptly acuminate, base truncate or cordate, with 2 glands 



