Koelreuteria i933 



western Szechwan. It was known by the Chinese as the luan tree in classical times, 

 when it was planted around the graves of Ministers of State ; but is now called 

 mu-lan-tze at Peking, where the leaves are used as a black dye and the seeds as 

 beads/ It is not recognised by Japanese botanists as a native of Japan,^ where it 

 was introduced at an early period by the Buddhist monks, but it is frequently 

 cultivated and occasionally naturalised ^ in Hondo. 



It was cultivated under glass at St. Petersburg in 1752, and was probably raised 

 from seed sent to Paris about 1 747-1 751 from Peking by D'Incarville, who intro- 

 duced about this time other trees from North China, like Sophora japonica and 

 Ailanthus glandulosa.'^ K. paniculata is said® to have been introduced into England 

 by the Earl of Coventry in 1763. It is perfectly hardy, forming a small ornamental 

 tree, which produces abundant panicles of yellow flowers about midsummer. The 

 leaves, which are elegant in form, often turn a beautiful crimson colour in autumn. 

 It is easily propagated by seeds, by layers in autumn, by cuttings of young branches 

 in spring, or by root-cuttings. 



The finest specimen in England is probably one in Waterer's nursery at 

 Knaphill, Woking, which was 40 ft. high by 6 ft. in girth in 191 1. Elwes saw a fine 

 tree® at the east corner of the upper north terrace of Windsor Castle in July 191 2, 

 when it was covered with a rich crop of flowers. This measured about 40 ft. by 

 5^ ft. It ripens seeds at Bitton, near Bath, which come up naturally. 



In France'^ it reproduces itself naturally by seed in the neighbourhood of 

 Montpellier ; and there is a fine specimen at Verrieres, which is considered by 

 Mottet ^ to be one of the original seedlings, dating perhaps from 1751. In 1906, it 

 measured 62 ft. high and 6 ft. 11 in. in girth, with a spread of branches about 60 ft. 

 in diameter. It produces fruit freely every year, M, Hickel tells me that there 

 is a large tree at Heidelberg; but it does not seem to be hardy* in other parts 

 of Germany where the winter is very severe, as in Silesia. In the United States^** 

 it is perfectly hardy as far north as Massachusetts, but is liable after a hard winter 

 to have single limbs die back to the trunk. The seeds readily germinate where 

 they fall to the ground, so that in some places in North America it is becoming 

 naturalised. (A. H.) 



' Bretschneider, Bot. Sinic. ii. 381 (1892), and iii. 491 (1895), and ZTw^. Europ. Bot. Disc. China, i. 159, ii. 850 (1898). 



2 K. japonica, Hasskarl, Cat. PI. Hart. Bog. Alt. 226 (1844), was a name given to a shrub of K. paniculata that was 

 introduced from Japan into Java. 



' Franchet and Savatier, En. PI. Jap. i. 85 (1875), record a specimen as wild in a wood in Hondo, which was undoubtedly 

 naturalised. 



^ Cf. vol. i. p. 32. A tree of Ailanthus glandulosa in the garden of the Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, is said 

 to have come as a seedling from London in 1758, and is undoubtedly one of the original trees raised from seed sent by 

 D'Incarville in 1751. The old Sophora japonica tree (vol. i. p. 42) at Cambridge in all probability dates from the same year. 



6 Alton, Hort. Kew. ii. 7 {1789)- 



8 A branch with fruit of a tree at Windsor is figured in Gard. Chron. ii. 563, fig. in (1887). 



' Parde, in Bull. Soc. Dend. France, 1909, pp. 103, 114. * Rev. Hort. Ixxviii. 466, fig. 181 (1906). 



9 Mitt. Deut. Dend. Ges. 1903, p. 8. A fine specimen, growing in the Royal Garden at Friedrichshafen on the Lake 

 of Constance, is figured in Mitt. Deut. Dend. Ges., 19 12, p. 310. 



w Garden and Forest, vii. 305 (1894), and x. 49 (1897). 



VII 2 O 



