184 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1757. 



In answer to this, I say their lobe-leaves are not equal ; for I have examined 

 both the specimens and drawings of Dr. Koempfer's spurious varnish-tree, and 

 I don't find that the number of the pinnae exceed 7 on a side : whereas I have a 

 small specimen of a leaf by me, that was taken from the top of one of D'ln- 

 carville's China varnish-trees, which is above 8 feet high, and stands in an open 

 exposure; and this leaf though but a foot long, has 12 lobe-leaves on a side, 

 and each lobe indented at the base. See fig. 5, pi. 7, where this specimen is 

 exactly delineated. At the same time I observed, that the leaves of the young 

 shoots of another tree were a yard long, as they were this summer at the garden 

 of the British Museum. Another thing is remarkable in the leaves of this 

 China varnish-tree ; and that is, the lobes of the leaves, as they approach to the 

 end, grow smaller and smaller ; whereas in the spurious Japan varnish-tree they 

 are rather, if there is any difference, larger towards the end. I shall make this 

 further remark, that though these indentations on the lobe-leaves may vary in 

 number in this China varnish-tree ; yet, as I observed before, since they are 

 continued on even in the smaller leaves at the top of the branches of a tree 8 

 feet high in the open ground, it appears to me that this specific character, be- 

 sides the form and insertion of the lobe-leaves, will ever distinguish it as a dif- 

 ferent species from the fasi-no-ki,* or spurious varnish-tree of Koempfer. 



Mr. Miller now goes on to tell us, he is confinned in his belief of their being 

 the same, by making some observations on the seeds of this China varnish-tree ; 

 and therefore asserts that they are the same. It is natural to suppose he com- 

 pared them with the accurate drawings of the seeds of Koempfer's fasi-no-ki, 

 p. 794. that being the only place where the seeds of it are described. Mr. 

 Miller goes on, and allows this China varnish-tree changes to a purple in the 

 autumn ; but not so deep as the true varnish-tree. I suppose he means by this 

 true varnish-tree, the Carolina pennated toxicodendron ; for Koempfer has 

 not told us what colour the true varnish-tree of Japan changes to in autumn. 



But this is no certain proof on either side of the question, only a coiTobo- 

 rating circumstance of the species of a tree : nor should I have mentioned it, 

 but for the manner in which Koempfer, with an imagination truly poetical, de- 

 scribes the autumnal beauty of his Fasi-no-ki, or spurious varnish-tree. " Ru- 

 bore suo autumnati quA viridantes sylvas suaviter interpolat, intuentium oculos 

 e longinquo in se convertit." Even this description would make one suspect it is 

 not the same with the China varnish-tree, which, I am informed, did not turn 

 purplish in the garden of the British Museum till the first frost came on : 

 whereas it is well known, that some of the rhus's and toxicodendrons, particu- 

 larly the Carolina pennated one, change to a fine scarlet colour in the beginning 



* The fasi-no-ki if the rh%u succedaneum. Linn. 



