15 14 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



lower surface, with scattered minute pubescence, which usually soon disappears, and 

 with prominent reticulate venation ; margin crenulate and ciliate ; rachis pubescent 

 on the edges of the groove ; petiolule pubescent. 



Flowers, on pedicels about in. long, in loose pubescent racemes ; ovary 

 pubescent on the borders. Pod indehiscent, 6 to io in. long, f to i^ in. broad, swollen 

 and convex on both surfaces, glaucous, glabrous, dark purplish brown, marked on 

 the surface with dot-like pits. Seeds numerous, placed in the centre of the pod, 

 oval, about in. long, convex on both surfaces, pointed at the apex, smooth, shining, 

 brown, marked with transerve lines. 



The spines on the branchlets are terete, usually with one or two lateral smaller 

 spines. A variety ' without spines is said to have arisen in Camuzet's nursery in 

 1823. 



G. sinensis was described in 1786 by Lamarck from a tree, which had been 

 cultivated for nine years in the Royal Garden at Versailles. It was said to have 

 been raised from seed 2 received from China ; and Lamarck adds that the pods were 

 somewhat cylindrical and contained globose seeds. In Gay's herbarium at Kew, 

 there is a specimen, labelled G. sinensis, Lamarck, which was gathered in 1822 from 

 a tree, probably the original one, at the Trianon ; and this specimen may be regarded 

 as an undoubted type of Lamarck's species. 3 It is identical with a species of 

 Gleditschia which occurs wild on the mountains near Peking, and is cultivated 

 farther south, as at Shanghai and Ningpo. The pods, which are called tsao-chia, are 

 used as soap for washing clothes by the Chinese. 



Loudon reported large trees of this species at Syon and the Mile End Nursery 

 in 1838 ; but it is doubtful if these were accurately named; and they cannot now 

 be found. We have not seen a single example in Britain. It is not common even 

 in France, though there are large specimens at Verrieres 4 near Paris, and at 

 Montpellier. (A. H.) 



GLEDITSCHIA MACRACANTHA 



i 



Gleditschia macracantha, Desfontaines, Hist. Arb. ii. 246 (1809); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. ii. 



654 (1838). 

 Gleditschia Fontanesii, Spach, Hist. Vtg. i. 95 (1834). 

 Gleditschia officinalis? Hemsley, in Kew Bulletin, 1892, p. 82. 



A tree, attaining in central China 50 ft. in height. Young branchlets glabrous. 

 Leaves simply pinnate, with six to twelve leaflets, which are variable in size ; those 



1 De Vries, Plant Breeding, 617 (1906). 



2 Bretschneider, Hist. Europ. Bat. Disc. China, 49, 52, 77 (1898), supposes that the seed was sent from Peking by 

 Pere D'Incarville ; but the latter died in 1757, and Lamarck's account, though not quite clear, seems to indicate that the 

 seeds were received about 1777. 



8 G. sinensis has been much confused with other Chinese species by various authors. There are good specimens in the 

 British Museum, gathered by Bretschneider and Williams near Peking. 



4 Cf. Hortus Vilmorinianus, 19 (1906), where a tree of this species, wrongly identified as G. caspica, is reported to be 

 50 ft. high and 5 ft. in girth. It was probably planted in 1825. 



6 This species was founded on specimens, bearing unripe and aborted pods, which were gathered on 26th July 1888. 



