ANACARDIACEAE. 



Determined by Alfred Rehder and E. H. Wilson. 



SPONDIAS L. 



Spondias axillaris Poxburgh, Cat. Hort. Bengal. 34 (nomen nudum) 

 (1814); Fl. Ind. II. 453 (1832). — Hooker f., Fl. Brit. Ind. II. 42 

 (1876). — King & Prain in Ann. Bot. Gard. Calcutta, IX. pt. I. 18, t. 

 25 (1901).— Brandis, Ind. Trees, 201 (1906). 



Spondias acuminata Gamble, Trees and Shrubs of Darjeeling, ed. 2, 25 (non 

 Roxburgh) (1896). 



Poupartia Fordii Hemsley in Hooker's Icon. XXVI. t. 2557 (1898). — Dunn 

 & Tutcher in Kew Bull. Misc. Inform, add. ser. X. 69 (Fl. Kwangtung & 

 Hongkong) (1912). 



Poupartia axillaris Prain Mss. apud King & Prain in Ann. Bot. Gard. Cal- 

 cutta, IX. pt. I. 18 (1901). 



Western Hupeh: Hsing-shan Hsien, margins of woods, alt. 600- 

 1100 m., local, May 1907 (No. 453^; tree 6-10 m. tall, girth 1-1.5 m.); 

 Changyang Hsien, roadsides, alt. 600 m., November 1907 (No. 480; 

 tree 10-20 m. tall, girth 1-2.5 m., fruit edible); Nanto, woodlands, 

 April 1900 (Veitch Exped. No. 172). Yunnan: Szemao, forests, alt. 

 1600 m., A. Henry (No. 11690). Hongkong: Happy Valley, No- 

 vember 5, 1903, C. S. Sargent; same locality, April 17, 1896, C. Ford 

 (ex Herb. Bot. Gard. Hongkong, No. 612) ; without locality, C. Wright 

 (Nos. 107, 473). 



This is a rather common tree at low altitudes in western Hupeh and in Szech'uan 

 and is chiefly confined to the valleys. It grows from 15 to 25 m. tall and the trunk 

 is often a metre in diameter near the base. The branches are massive and form 

 an oval or rounded head; the bark is grey, deeply fissured and persistent; the 

 leaves are deciduous. The flowers are polygamo-dioecious; the male and female 

 flowers are borne in many-flowered panicles which spring from the axils of scales 

 and also from the axils of the lower leaves. The hermaphrodite flowers are 

 much larger than the unisexual flowers and are borne in short racemes which 

 are commonly one-flowered by abortion and never more than 3- or 4-flowered. 

 The leafy shoots bearing panicles of unisexual flowers look very much Uke branches 

 of Rhus succedanea Linnaeus. 



Brandis (1. c.) describes S. axillaris Roxburgh as an evergreen tree with brown 

 or reddish bark which peels off in long flakes. We think this must be a mistake, 



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