SIMAROUBACE^— AILANTHUS FAMILY 



AILANTHUS 



A ildn th lis gla n dit Ibsa . 

 Ailanthiis means, it is said, Tree of Heaven. 



Native of China, introduced into Europe about the middle of the 

 eighteenth century. A sturdy tree, fifty to seventy feet high, 

 which produces an irregular and picturesque head. Grows rapidly ; 

 roots run near the surface ; suckers freely ; short-lived. Tolerant 

 of many soils. 



Bark. — Brownish gray, with shallow fissures. Branchlets stout, 

 clumsy, brownish green, then reddish brown, finally dark brown ; 

 bitter. 



Wood. — Pale yellow ; hard, fine-grained, satiny. Used in cab- 

 inet work. 



Winter Buds. —Brown, small, flattened, obtuse. 



Leaves. — Alternate, pinnately compound, one and one - half to 

 three feet long. Leaflets twenty-one to forty-one, from three to 

 five inches long. Ovate-lanceolate, base truncate or heart-shaped, 

 unequal, entire, with one or two coarse blunt teeth at each side of 

 the base, acuminate. Terminal leaflet ovate, toothed, sometimes 

 lobed, sometimes wanting. Feather-veined, midrib and primary 

 veins prominent. They come out of the bud a bronze reddish 

 green, when full grown are dark green above, paler green beneath. 

 In autumn they turn a bright clear yellow, or fall without change. 

 Petioles, smooth, terete, swollen at base, often reddish. Stipules 

 wanting. 



Flowers. — June, when leaves are full grown. Polygamo-dioecious, 

 small, yellowish green, borne in upright panicles. Staminate flow- 

 ers ill scented. Pistillate much less so. 



Calyx. — Five-lobed, lobes imbricate in bud. 



Corolla. — Petals five, greenish, oblong, acute, hairy, hypogynous, 

 imbricate in bud. 



36 



