io6 
FLORA AND SYLVA 
CORIARIA: WITH A PLATE OF 
CORIARIA TERMINALIS.* 
Though of minor importance from a 
garden standpoint this group contains 
two or three handsome kinds, while the 
whole family is exceedingly interesting 
in its structural peculiarities. The genus 
is not a large one but is widely spread, 
with one kind in Europe and North 
Africa; others reaching from the Hima- 
layas through China to the far east ; while 
another section with an uncertain num- 
ber of kinds spreads over South America 
and New Zealand. Wholly distinctfrom 
any other plants, not only are the Cori- 
arias classed by themselves in an order 
of which they are the sole representa- 
tives, but it has also been found impos- 
sible to relate this to any other order, 
and it therefore stands in isolation. From 
the study of fossil remains however it 
would seem that at one time there were 
many other species, five or six extinct 
kinds having been traced in Europe, 
their disappearance being probably due 
to climatic changes which may have 
swept away connecting links in the chain 
of plant relationship. The one kind now 
found in Europe [C. myrtifolid) is an 
old garden plant long known as the 
"Tanner's Tree," but of little value apart 
from the economic uses to which it owed 
its name and a measure of importance. 
The name Coriaria is derived from the 
use of its roots in tanning leather, for 
which it is still valued in parts of Russia 
and the Turkish provinces. 
The peculiarity of these shrubs is in 
the formation of their berry-like fruits. 
The flowers are small and inconspicu- 
ous, with scale-like petals of green, yel- 
low, brown, or pink,and the sexes mostly 
apart though found upon the same plant. 
After flowering however the tiny petals 
thicken and swell into a juicy fruit-like 
envelope surrounding the cluster of seeds 
in the centre, and very handsome when 
brilliantly coloured as in the finer kinds : 
— orange-yellow in termi7ialis^ crimson 
in jap07nca^ blue in ?iepale72sis 7naxima^ 
and purple in certain of the New Zes-hnd 
species . While of tempting appearance 
all these fruits are more or less poisonous, 
though the natives of New Zealand are 
said to brew a pleasant drink from the 
berries of one kind, and a new species 
(C hi777alaye7isis f) said to have come 
recently from the colder regions of the 
Himalayas , is said to be e vergreen,hardy , 
and to bear edible fruit. Whether this 
be so, time will show. All the kinds 
are of the easiest culture in moist, loamy 
soils, the best kinds being hardy, at least 
at the root, and growing again when 
cut down by frost. About six kinds 
have been introduced, though it is 
doubtful whether some of them are now 
to be found, unless it be in botanical 
collections. 
C. japonka. — One of the handsomest kinds, 
growing as a low, branching shrub with square 
and woody stems of warm reddish-brown, 
reaching at last a height of 8 to lo feet. The 
leaves come in opposite pairs, arranged regu- 
larly along either side of the stem, and are 
shortly stalked, 2 inches long, narrowly oval 
and sharply pointed in shape, with three 
prominent veins. The flowers are very small, 
of a pretty pink or coral-red colour, and appear 
early in June upon the stems of the previous 
year, bursting from the old leaf-scars as racemes 
of to 3 inches which are clustered two or 
three together, the male flowers (when present 
From a drawing by H. G. Moon. 
