168 CHINESE ECONOMIC TREES 



Central China, Japan. About 20 or 25 species liave been enumerated, 

 2 species so far have been described from China. Only a few of the genus 

 are arborescent. Nearly all species have a sweet, pulpy, edible fruit. 

 Amelanchier is also cultivated for its flowers, which bloom in early spring. 



Amelanchier sinica (Schneider) Chun 

 (A. asiatica var. sinica Schneider.) Shad Bush. 



Small tree, rarely 15 m. tall. Leaves ovate to oblong, acute, rounded 

 at the base, often entire or distinctly serrate only on the upper half of the 

 margin, loosely and sparingly tomentose beneath when young, usually 

 finally glabrous, about 4.5 cm. long, 2.8 cm. wide. Flowers in dense 

 racemes; style as long as the calyx lobes and more or less united below, 

 ovary glabrous. Fruit bluish-black. 



Western China. 



Distinguished from Amelanchier asiatica — wliich does not occur in 

 China — by the smaller, less tomentose leaves, entire or serrate only on the 

 upper 1/3 of the margin and also by the glabrous ovaries. E. H. Wilson 

 notes- that this is the commonest and most beautiful small tree in the 

 woods of W. Hupeh. The bluish-black fruits are edible. 



ERIOBOTRYA 



Evergreen trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate, coarsely toothed, short 

 stalked or almost sessile. Flowers in terminal panicle?. Calyx tube 5 

 toothed, woolly; corolla of 5 petals; stamens 20-40; styles 2-5, united 

 below; ovary inferior, 2-5 celled, cell 2-ovuled. Fruit a pome with thin 

 endocarp surrounding the large angular seeds. 



About 10 species in the warmer parts of China, Japan and the 

 Himalayas. 



Eriobotrya japonica Liridley. 

 "PePah." 



An evergreen tree up to 10 m. high. Young branches thick and 

 woolly. Leaves large, 15-30 cm. long, acuminate, tapering or wedge 

 shaped at the base, shining green above, brownish woolly below, with 

 parallel veins terminating in the teeth. Flowers 12-20 mm. across, 

 white, hawthorn-like, fragrant, borne in upright panicles. Fruit roundish, 

 pear-shaped or oval, with persistent calyx tubes and thin yellow flesh, 

 surrounding the large, dark brown seeds. 



S. China and Japan. 



