434 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



caudate-acuminate ; margin repand, minutely ciliate, distantly and minutely serrate 

 or with occasional short teeth ; nerves, fifteen to eighteen pairs, usually dividing 

 and forming loops close to the margin ; upper surface dark green, glabrous ; lower 

 surface pale green, glabrescent. 



Flowers fragrant, in pubescent terminal panicles, which are a foot or more in 

 length ; pedicels short. Calyx with five short, rounded, ciliate lobes. Petals five, 

 white, oblong, sub-cordate at the base, converging at the apex. Stamens five, 

 alternating with five staminodes. Fruit about an inch long ; valves, opening 

 longitudinally from above downwards. Seed with an oblong wing attached to its 

 upper side, the wing two to three times as long as the body of the seed. 



In summer the large pinnate leaves give the tree much the appearance of 

 Ailanthus ; but the bark is different, and the leaflets of Cedrela are devoid of the 

 glandular teeth near the base, which are so characteristic of Ailanthus. In winter 

 the following characters are available (Plate 126, fig. 2) : — 



Twigs stout, brown, minutely pubescent ; lenticels small, scattered ; pith white, 

 circular in section. Leaf-scars large, alternate, slightly raised, obcordate or oval, 

 with five bundle-dots. Terminal bud, much larger than the others, broadly conical, 

 of four to six triangular scales, which are swollen externally and hollowed inter- 

 nally, brown, shining, with acuminate pubescent tips. Lateral buds minute, solitary, 

 inserted immediately above the leaf-scars, hemispherical, showing three to five 

 shining brown scales. 



Lubbock,^ who gives a detailed account of the structure and development of the 

 buds, the scales of which are modified leaves, states that the terminal bud usually 

 dies m wmter, but sometimes lives, and then is always later in developing in spring 

 than the lateral buds. ^ 



Cedrela sinensis is a native of northern and western China. It is very common 

 m the neighbourhood of Peking, and was found in Kansuh, beyond the Great Wall 

 by Piasetski. According to von Rosthorn and Wilson, it is wild in the forests of 

 the province of Szechuan. It is commonly cultivated in central China, where it never 

 attains a great size, mainly because the Chinese spoil its growth by lopping off in 

 spring the young shoots, which are much esteemed as food. These are eaten after 



chun. The timber is good, reddish in colour, and often used in making furniture! 

 The tree was first made known to Europeans by Pere d'Incarvilk who sent 



from cbssical times, and references to it occur in the earliest Chinese literature. 



i^eareia sinensis was mtrodurprl in tRAo k,, c- 1 



Peking ,0 the Museum , P. t f ^ ' '"^° '™' " '"""S P'^""' ''""' 



si,^„sis This Z ? . T '"« '" '^" " ""'' ■•"Ognised to be CedrA 



mZ; ha .: ;: : "rate"';'. 'Tt-' ""-^-^ " '"= ^^''^^ ^' *^ 



Many trees have been raised in the vicinity of Paris, both by seed and by root- 



' >«'-«• ^"««. .w. (/,v.), XX.X. 478 (,894). , rr 



^^' Cf. name given to Ai/anthus, p. 32. 



