^EUCOMMIA EUCRYPHIA 535 



separate trees; they are inconspicuous, the males consisting of brown 

 stamens only; female ones not seen by me. Fruit flat and winged, one- 

 seeded, rather like an enlarged fruit of wych-elm, oval-oblong, i ins. 

 long, tapering at the base to a short stalk; apex notched. 



Introduced to France from China about 1896, and a few years later 

 to Kew, where several plants raised from the original plant (a male) are 

 15 to 20 ft. high, and have several times flowered. It was first discovered 

 in China by Henry as a cultivated tree<2o to 30 ft high, but as its bark 

 is and has for 2000 years been highly valued by the Chinese for its real 

 or supposed tonic and other medicinal virtues, it is never allowed to 

 reach its full size, but is cut down and stripped of its bark. To Europeans 

 the most interesting attribute of the tree is its containing rubber. What 

 its commercial value may be is doubtful ; the rubber is apparently of 

 inferior quality, but the tree is of peculiar interest as the only one hardy 

 in our climate that is known to produce this substance. If a leaf be 

 gently torn in two, strings of rubber are visible. At Kew, grown in good 

 loam, it has proved absolutely hardy, and a vigorous grower; it can be 

 propagated by cuttings made of half-ripened wood put in gentle heat. 

 Wilson introduced seeds to the Coombe Wood nursery, from which, no 

 doubt, trees of both sexes have been raised. Some authors place it in 

 the witch-hazel family. 



EUCRYPHIA. EUCRYPHIACE^E. 



A group of four species of evergreen shrubs and trees, two native of 

 Chile, two of Australasia. The Chilean species only are grown out-of- 

 doors in the British Isles. They are readily distinguished as follows : 



E. cordifolia. Leaves simple ; petals five. 

 E. pinnalifolia. Leaves pinnate ; petals four. 



One of the Australasian species, E. BILLARDIERII, Spach, is sometimes 

 grown in greenhouses, and has white flowers i in. or more across, and 

 simple, narrowly oblong leaves, 2 to 3 ins. long. It is a tree occasionally 

 80 to 100 ft. high, and might be hardy in the south-western maritime 

 counties. The genus is of peculiar botanical interest in having no known 

 close allies, and its true place in the vegetable kingdom is doubtful. It 

 is sometimes placed in the Rose family. (For cultivation, see E. 

 pinnatifolia.) 



E. CORDIFOLIA, Cavanilles. 



An evergreen shrub or small tree, with downy branchlets and simple heart- 

 shaped leaves, i to 3 ins. long, dull green ; the margins wavy, very downy 

 beneath. Flowers produced singly in the terminal leaf-axils, white, 2 ins. 

 across ; petals five. 



Native of Valdivia and the Island of Chiloe, where it attains a stature of 

 30 ft. or more; introduced in 1851. More tender than E. pinnatifolia, this 

 species has never obtained a good footing in gardens, and it is only adapted 

 for places where the conditions are favourable. The finest specimen in the 

 south of England is at Nyman's Gardens, Handcross, in Sussex, about 18 ft. 

 high and 6 ft. through ; another in the late Mr W. E. Gumbleton J !s garden 

 at Queenstown was, in 1907, 10 ft. high. At Kew it has been killed over 



