224 CHINESE ECONOMIC TREES 



STAPHYLEA 



Deciduous shrubs or trees with opposite leaves. Leaflets 3-7, 

 serrulate and stipulate. Flowers perfect, regular, white or pink, in 

 terminal panicles or racemes; carpels 2 or 3, more or less united at the 

 base. Fruit a membranous, inflated, pale green, 2 or 3 celled capsule. 

 Seeds globose, bony, 1 or several in each cell. 



12 species in the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. 2 

 species in China. The bladdery fruits are conspicuous. 



Staphylea holocarpa Hemsley. 

 P ladder-nuts. 



Shrub or tree, 8-10 m. tall. Leaves trifoliate ; leaflets oval to ovate- 

 lanceolate, acuminate, finely serrate, 5-10 cm. long; lateral leaflets 

 nearly sessile. Flowers before the leaves in drooping panicles, 4-10 cm. 

 long, white or pink. Capsule inflated, pear shaped, abruptly acuminate, 

 4-5 cm. long. Seeds gray-brown. 



Hupeh, Szechuan, Shensi. 



S. bumalda De Candole is a shrub, with very showy flowers. 

 China and Japan. 



TAPISCIA 



Deciduous trees. Leaves alternate, odd pinnate, stipulate. Flowers 

 in axillary panicles, regular, perfect; calyx tubular, 5 lobed; petals 5, 

 oblanceolate; stamens 5, alternate with the petals, exserted; ovary 1 

 celled, 1 ovuled ; style 1. Fruit ovoid, indehiscent, with bony endocarp. 



A monotypic genus confined to China, strongly resembling Pistacia 

 but not at all related to it. The generic name is an anagram of Pistacia. 



Tapiscia sinensis Oliver. 



Tree 10-15 m. tall, rarely 30 m. tall with light gray, shallowly 

 fissured bark. Leaves 30-45 cm. long; leaflets 5-7, ovate-elliptic, acute 

 or acuminate, cordate or rounded at the base, gray-green beneath, 8-13 

 cm. long. Flowers and fruits borne in drooping panicles. Flowers 

 minute, yellow, fragrant. Fruit ovoid, black, about 12 mm. long. 



Szechuan and Hupeh. 



