SIMAROUBACE/E—AILANTHUS FAMILY 
AILANTHUS 
dlildnthus glandulosa. 
Ailanthus means, it is said, Tree of Heaven. 
Native of China, introduced into Europe about the middle of the 
eighteenth century. A sturdy tree, fifty to seventy feet high, 
which produces an irregular and picturesque head. Grows rapidly ; 
roots run near the surface; suckers freely; short-lived. Tolerant 
of many soils. 
Bark.—Brownish gray, with shallow fissures. Branchlets stout, 
clumsy, brownish green, then reddish brown, finally dark brown; 
bitter. 
IVood.—Pale yellow; hard, fine-grained, satiny. Used in cab- 
inet work. 
Winter Buds.—Brown, small, flattened, obtuse. 
Leaves.—Alternate, pinnately compound, one and one-half to 
three feet long. Leaflets twenty-one to forty-one, from three to 
five inches long. Ovate-lanceolate, base truncate or heart-shaped, 
unequal, entire, with one or two coarse blunt teeth at each side of 
the base, acuminate. Terminal leaflet ovate, toothed, sometimes 
‘obed, sometimes wanting. Feather-veined, midrib and_ primary 
veins prominent. They come out of the bud a bronze reddish 
green, when full grown are dark green above, paler green beneath. 
In autumn they turn a bright clear yellow, or fall without change. 
Petioles, smooth, terete, swollen at base, often reddish. Stipules 
wanting, 
Flowers.—June, when leaves are full grown. Polygamo-dicecious, 
small, yellowish green, borne in upright panicles. Staminate flow- 
ers ill scented. Pistillate much less so. 
Caly.x.—Five-lobed, lobes imbricate in bud. 
Corolla.—Vetals five, greenish, oblong, acute, hairy, hypogynous, 
imbricate in bud. 
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