Gymnocladus 429 



five to ten, surrounded by dark-coloured sweet pulp, ovoid, f inch long, and covered 

 by a hard dark brown shell. 



In the young leaf^ of Gymnocladus canadensis, the rachis is prolonged an inch 

 or more above the insertion of the upper pinnse ; and the axes of the pinnse are 

 similarly prolonged beyond the leaflets. These terminal appendages are very 

 slender and tendril-like, and disappear before the leaf attains its full size. They 

 have been supposed to be rudimentary tendrils, such as occur normally in a 

 developed state in many leguminous plants ; but they may represent simply 

 degenerate terminal leaflets. 



Sargent states that this species is dioecious ; and that in order to obtain fruit 

 male and female trees must be close together. C. M. Hovey,' however, writing 

 from Boston, states that he knows a solitary tree, no other being within two miles, 

 which produces fruit and fertile seeds, from which he has raised many plants. 

 The so-called pistillate flowers have stamens, which doubtless are usually 

 not fully developed ; but it is possible that in some cases they may produce good 

 pollen. 



The flowers^ in America are visited by bees, which are attracted by the nectar 

 secreted by the inner wall of the calyx tube. 



Identification 



In summer the foliage of the tree is unmistakable. In winter the fewness of 

 the branches and the stoutness of the branchlets, which are very short in adult 

 trees, are remarkable. The latter show the following characters : — 



Twigs coarse, grey, glabrous, with numerous small brown lenticels and wide, 

 circular, orange - coloured pith. Leaf- scars large, obcordate, slightly oblique on 

 prominent pulvini, with a narrow raised yellowish margin and a whitish convex 

 surface, marked by three to five irregular tubercles, which are the scars of the 

 vascular bundles. Buds very small ; two to three vertically superposed, in the axil 

 of each leaf-scar, the lower one rarely developing ; projecting slightly out of circular 

 depressions in the bark, which form pubescent rings around the buds. Each bud 

 shows two to three minute scales, which become accrescent and green in the 

 spring at the base of the shoots. No true terminal bud is developed, the 

 tip of the branchlet falling off in summer and leaving at the apex of the twig 

 a circular scar. 



Distribution 



The Kentucky Coffee tree, though occupying a wide area in North America, 

 is nowhere common. It is found scattered amongst other trees on hillsides 

 where the soil is rich, and in alluvial land beside rivers. It is met with in central 



1 Cf. B. D. Halstead, in Torreya, ii. 5 {1902). - Garden, xiv. 240 (1878). 



^ Robertson, Trans. Acad, Sc. St, Louis, vii. 165 (1897). 



