144 CHINESE ECONOMIC TREES 



to a long, narrow point; serrate, pubescent beneath when young, glabrous 

 on older trees, dull green. Fruit globose, spiny, due to the long awned 

 scales surrounding the ovaries, becoming hard and woody at maturity. 



The juvenile leaves and petioles of this species densely villose. 

 Leaves with 5 narrow lobes. 



S. E. to W. Central China. 



A widely distributed tree with a range extending from Formosa and 

 Kwangtung to Thibet. The tree prefers a moist situation. The foliage 

 turns brilliantly brown and red in the autumn and is retained late into 

 the winter. The wood is said to be used in China for making tea chests 

 and the presses in which brick tea is molded, but the wood is usually 

 considered of little value. Some farmers soak the wood for a length of 

 time in a pond or stream, a practice which is supposed to improve the 

 quality of the timber. In Kwangtung a silkworm which produces a 

 strong, coarse silk-gut is fed on the leaves. 



var. monticola Rehder & Wilson. 



A form distinctly glabrous on both the young and the mature plant. 



EUCOMMIACEAE 



Tree with alternate leaves without' stipules. Flowers without perianth, 

 unisexual. Staminate flower pedicelled with 8-10 short stamens; 

 pistillate flower short stalked, solitary; carpels 2, one of which aborts, 

 long pedicelled; ovules 2, suspended. Winged fruits narrowed towards 

 the base. 



A family of a single species. Confined to China. 



EUCOMMIA. 



Trees with laminate pith. Leaves deciduous, alternate, simple, 

 serrate, elliptic-ovate, acuminate, short petioled, glabrous above, pilose 

 on the veins beneath. Flowers appear before the leaves, dioecious, 

 without perianth, solitary on the axil of a bract. Staminate flowers 

 composed of 8 (6-10) stamens on a short pedicel, subtended by a bract; 

 stamens with elongated, linear anthers produced at the apex into a short 

 point, on a short filament. Pistillate flower composed of a naked, 



