222 CHINESE ECONOMIC TREES 



entire, glossy green above, pale and glabrous below, 5-10 cm. long. 

 Flowers yellow-green. Fruit yellowish-white, compressed, to 8 mm. 

 broad. 



Yunnan, llupeh, Szechuan, Hongkong, Formosa. The seeds are 

 covered with a fatty substance which is expressed for various uses, in 

 Japan particularly for the manufacture of candles. The seeds are 

 ground, steamed and pressed, and the fatty content refined by melting. 

 This rhus tallow, not really a wax, is exported from Japan in great 

 quantities into Europe and America, where it is used either to adulterate 

 beeswax or to be used in its stead. 



Rhus javanica Linnaeus. 



(R. semialata Murray.) 



Nut Gall Tree. Fu Yung Shu. 



Shrub or small tree up to 8 m. high. Leaflets 7-13, nearly sessile or 

 short stalked, ovate to ovate-oblong, acute, rounded or broadly cuneate 

 at the base, crenate serrate, brownish pubescent beneath, 5-15 cm. long, 

 rachis often winged. Panicles 20-25 cm. long; flowers creamy white. 

 Fruit small, sabglobose, orange red, pubescent. 



Himalayas to China and Korea. 



This Rhus is the host of the insect which produces the Nut Gall of 

 commerce. The galls are irregular in shape, light and hollow, ranging 

 from 1 to 4 inches long. The acid content is about 70% of the substance 

 of the gall. Quantities of these galls were formerly used in Germany for 

 the production of tannic and gallic acids. In China the galls are used 

 to dye blue cloths and silks black. 



AQUIFOLIACEAE 



Trees or shrubs. Leaves evergreen or deciduous, alternate or 

 opposite, simple. Flowers perfect, rarely unisexual, axillary, small, 

 solitary or clustered; sepals 2-6, more or Jess connate; petals and 

 stamens 4-5; ovary superior, 3-many celled; ovules 1-2 in each cell. 

 Fruit berry-like. 



Three genera and about 280 species. The genus Ilex embraces 275 of 

 the total 280 species. 



