190 



ARBORETUM ET FRUTICETUM BRITANNICUM. 



Gen. Char. Calyx 5-toothed, campanulate at the base, or somewhat attenn - 

 ated. Petals of the keel usually concrete at the apex. Legume somewhat 

 moniliform, wingless, many-seeded. (Don's Mill.) 



Leaves impari-pinnate, with 11 13 leaflets, generally exstipulate. Flowers 

 yellow, white, or blue, in simple racemes, or panicles. The only hardy 

 species are deciduous trees, natives of Japan or China. 



% 1. S. JAPO'NICA L. The Japan Sophora. 



Identification. Lin. Mant, 78. ; Dec. Prod., 2. p. 98. ; Don's Mill., 2. p. 109. 

 Synoni/me. S. sinica Hosier Journ. Phys. 14. p. 248., Dec. I.tgum. t. 4. f. 1. 



Engravings. Red. in N. Du Ham., 3. t. 21. ; Dec. Legum., t. 4. f. 1. ; the plate of this species in 

 Arb. Brit. 1st edit., vol. v.; and our fig. 294. 



Spec. Char., $c. Leaves pinnate, with 11 13 leaflets, which are oblong- 

 ovate, acute, and smooth ; panicle loose, terminal ; pods smooth. A de- 

 ciduous tree of the middle size. Japan. Height 40 ft. to 50 ft. Intro- 

 duced in 1763. Flowers cream-coloured; August and September. Pods 

 rarely produced in England. Decaying leaves yellow and green. Naked 

 young wood dark green, like that of Jasminum officinale. 

 Varieties. 



1 S. j. 2 variegata Hort. has the leaves variegated, but is not worth 



cultivating as an ornamental plant. 



S. j. 3 pendula Hort., and the plate of this tree in our 1st edit, 

 vol. v., has pendulous shoots, and is a very remarkable variety. 

 Grafted near the ground, the shoots run along the surface, like those 

 of a trailing plant, to a very great distance from the main stem ; in 

 good soil, a shoot extending itself 6 or 8 feet in one season. 

 Grafted at the height of 10 or 20 feet or upwards, the shoots hang 

 down, and form one of the most ornamental of pendulous trees, 

 both in summer and winter. 



A round-headed tree, readily distinguished in winter by the fine, smooth, 

 dark green bark of its young wood and smaller branches ; and, in summer, by 

 the dark blue green of its foliage. In deep free soil, it grows with great ra- 

 pidity, seedlings attaining the height of 10 or 12 feet in 4 or 5 years ; and 

 in 20 or 30 years, in the neighbourhood of London, 30 or 40 feet. There are 

 large specimens in England, which flower freely ; but they have never yet 

 ripened seeds : indeed, the tree ripens seeds in France only in the very 

 warmest seasons. The wood is very hard and compact, as much so, it is said, 

 as that of the box. The bark exhales a strong odour, which, it is stated in 

 the Nouveau Du Hamel t produces colic and purging on those who prune the 



