178 
Origin al Commun ica tions. 
Description. — Tree thirty to forty feet in height, spreading. 
Bark scabrous, roots horizontal, rather superficial, extending 
to a considerable distance. Leaves large, alternate, bipin- 
nate, each pinnule with five to seven, opposite, lanceolate 
acute, dentate leaflets. Flowers odorous, of a light violet or 
pink colour, forming a drooping panicle, springing from the 
axil of the upper leaves. The calyx is very small, and hav- 
ing five obtuse, slightly pubescent lobes. The petals are 
much longer than the calyx, spreading, oboval and obtuse. 
The stamens are united into a tube, which is rather shorter 
than the petals, dilated at its base, of a dark violet colour, 
and ten-toothed, but each division being bifid, it appears 
twenty-toothed, except on close inspection. The anthers 
which are bilocular, alternate with the dentures of the tube, 
and are attached on its inner surface. The ovary is globu- 
lar, surmounted by a thick style, which is terminated by a 
small stigma, which is five lobed or rayed. The fruit is a 
fleshy berry of an ovoid shape, about the size of a cherry, 
and containing an elongated nut which is five-celled and five- 
seeded. 
Habitat. — The Pride of China is a native of many parts of 
Asia, but has been long naturalized in the southern countries 
of Europe, from whence it was introduced into the United 
States at an early period after the settlement of Carolina and 
Georgia, where it has become as common as if originally a 
native. It succeeds perfectly well as far north as Virginia, 
and will sometimes survive for a few years in Pennsylvania, 
but is most generally destroyed by the severity of the winters, 
even when by care and protection it may have attained a 
large size. 
Rafinesque states that it is a native of Arkansas and 
Texas, but does not give any authority for the assertion; and 
as all other writers on American plants unite in declaring it 
to be of foreign origin, it is likely he has been led into error, 
by finding some individuals in uncultivated situations. This, 
it is well known, is by no means a certain guide as to whe- 
ther a plant is indigenous, as most of the naturalized species 
