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TREE OF HEAVEN. 



Family: TEREBINTHACEAE [Translator's note: now SIMARUBACEAE] . 

 Reproductive system: MONCECY, POLYANDRY. 



The Tree of Heaven, Aylantus glandulosa, Desf. [Translator's note: now 

 Ailanthus altissima], is a tall tree with grayish bark. The leaves are large, winged, and 

 consist of five or six pairs of leaflets plus an unpaired one. The leaflets are oval- 

 lanceolate, pointed, with one or two teeth at the base and a gland underneath each tooth. 

 The flowers are arranged in straight terminal panicles. They're dioecious or polygamous. 

 The male flowers have a calyx with five teeth, five concave petals with central veins, and 

 ten stamens. The female or hermaphroditic flowers additionally have a lateral style, a 

 broad stigma, and five superior ovaries that turn into five compressed fruits. The fruits 

 are membranous, oblong, narrow at both ends, indented on one side, and contain an 

 osseous seed at the center of the pericarp. 



FLOWERS: at the beginning of summer. 



RANGE: China. Acclimatized in parks and ornamental gardens in a large part of 

 Europe. The seeds were sent from China by Father dTncarville around 1751 [Translator's 

 note: Pierre Nicolas Le Charon dTncarville, 1706 - 1757, Jesuit missionary and botanist |. 



NOMENCLATURE. At first this tree was believed to be the Japanese fasi-no-ki and 

 the rhus vernix of Linnaeus. But after it flowered and yielded fruit in Europe, it became 

 clear that this tree is different from the lacquer tree of Japan [Translator's note: now Rhus 

 verniciflua, a sumac], and that they couldn't even be included in the same genus. A 

 dissertation on this subject by M. Desfontaines can be found in the Proceedings of the 

 Academy of Sciences of 1786. 



USES. The tree's wood is white with a very fine grain. In 1810 I cut one down in 

 my garden. In 1819 its trunk provided wood for a writing desk that was as white as that 

 of our linden tree but with a more compact and satiny texture. 



