the trees of great britain & ireland - Facsimile Books & other digitally ...

32, The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland
into Europe it was supposed to be the species of Rhus which yields Japanese varnish
or lacquer; and even now it is often called in France Vernis du Japan. The tree,
however, is unknown wild in Japan, and is seldom or never cultivated there. The
Chinese in classical times were well acquainted with Ailanthus, which they called
ch'u, a word explained as meaning "useless wood," as it was in ancient times (as
well as at present) used only for firewood. 1 Popularly Ailanthus and Cedrela are
now called cKun trees, the former being distinguished as the "stinking ch'un," and
the latter as the "fragrant ch'un."
In China the Ailanthus grows to be a large tree; but the timber is little valued.
The root-bark is used, as a strong infusion, in cases of dysentery. 2 In the Pharma
ceutical Museum, London, there are several specimens of barks bearing the Chinese
name for Ailanthus ; but these are doubtfully referable to that species; and the whole
subject of the use of Ailanthus bark for dysentery requires further investigation. 3
In the Kew Museum there are specimens of silkworms (Attaciis Cynthia, Drury),
which feed on the leaves of Ailanthus in North China; and there are also samples
of the " wild silk " produced, which is made into one kind of pongee. This species
of silkworm was introduced into France in 1858; and large numbers of Ailanthus
trees were planted with a view to the feeding of the silkworms. The winter of
1879 killed off all the silkworms; and apparently the cultivation of the tree in
France for the production of silk is a thing of the past.
In the Kew Museum there is a note attached to a specimen of the wood of
Ailanthiis glandulosa from Tuscany, which says that the bark yields a resinous
juice ; but there is no account of such a resin from Chinese sources ; and exudation
from the bark has not been observed in trees growing in England or in France.
In India, however, the resin, called muttee-pal, is derived from the bark of Ailanthus
malabarica, and is used both as an incense and as a remedy for dysentery.
INTRODUCTION
Ailanthiis glandulosa was first introduced from China in 1751. In Hortus
Collinsonianus? p. 2, a memorandum is copied which was left by Collinson,
stating : "A stately tree raised from seed from Nankin in 1751, sent over by
Father d'lncarville, my correspondent in China, to whom I sent many seeds in
return ; he sent it to me and the Royal Society." Pere d'lncarville 6 was a French
Jesuit missionary, who died at Peking in 1757. In Trans. Phil. Soc., 1 757, a
paper is printed, which was read on 25th November 1756, being a letter from John
Ellis to P. C. Webb ; and it mentions two trees which were growing, one in Webb's
1 In the Shu-Ching, it is said : "In the ninth month they make firewood of the ch'u tree."
2 On the therapeutical value of this drug, see articles by Drs. Dudgeon and Robert, in London Pharmaceutical Journal,
ser. iii. iv. 890, and vii. 372.
3 The bark has been found to be an excellent vermifuge in cases of tapeworm. See Iletet, in U.S. Dispens.
15th edition, 1564.
4 Compiled by L. W. Dillwyn, and published at Swansea in 1843.
» In Cibot, Mtm. Cone. Chinois, ii. 1777, 583, d'lncarville's " Memoire sur les vcrs a soie sanvage" is published, in
which he speaks of the Ailanthus as the frtne puant (stinking ash) of North China.
Ailanthus 33
garden at Busbridge, near Godalming, and another in the Chelsea Physic Garden,
both raised from the seed sent by Pere d'lncarville. The tree is here first described
as Rhus sinense foliis alatis, foliolis oblongis acuminatis ad basin subrotundis et
dentatis?
TREE OF HEAVEN
This name is often given to the tree in England, corresponding to the
German Gotterbaum. I t is not the translation of any Chinese name, as has
often been erroneously stated. Desfontaines' original description occurred in
a rare book which has not been looked up by most writers on the tree. He
was well aware that the tree came from China, but in selecting a name for the
genus he took it from another species which he found figured in Rumphius' Hortus
Amboinensis, v. cap. 57, tab. 132. This species, left undescribed by Desfontaines, is
Ailanthus moluccana. Rumphius calls it arbor cceli, the equivalent of the native
name in the Amboyna language, Aylanto, which signifies " a tree so tall as to touch
the sky." "Tree of Heaven" is accordingly a translation of the name of
Rumphius, and is more properly applied to the tall tropical species than to Ailanthus
glandulosa, which does not attain any remarkable height.
CULTIVATION
The Ailanthus is easily propagated from seeds; but as trees bearing male
flowers are objectionable on account of their odour, it is preferable to propagate the
tree from root-cuttings obtained from female trees. In addition to the disagreeable
odour of the male flowers, there may be some foundation for the belief prevalent in
the United States that they cause stomachic disturbance and sore throat. The
pollen from staminate flowers, doubtless, occasions a kind of hay fever.
The tree suckers freely from the root and to a great distance, as far as 100 feet
from the parent stem. At Kew these suckers frequently appear between the tiles
of the floor of one of the buildings near which an Ailanthus stands. At Oxford 2 a
root-sucker sent up a flowering shoot, and, what is more remarkable, produced
simple leaves, giving some support to the idea that plants with compound foliage
originated from those with simple leaves. The tree has extraordinary vitality.
Dr. Masters 2 gives an account of a tree which was cut down, the stump being left
in the ground below the surface. Several years elapsed during which nothing was
observed, but after about ten years suckers were seen coming up in a gravel path
adjacent, and these, being traced, were found to issue from the old stump.
Ailanthus reproduces itself freely from stools, and the coppice shoots thus
obtained are very vigorous.
It was long supposed that Ailanthus would succeed even on the worst soils,
but this is an error. It only does well on permeable soils, which are fairly moist,
1 In the herbarium of the British Museum there is a specimen labelled Hort. Busbridge, which is undoubtedly from the
original tree. It was cut down in 1856 owing to the great amount of shade it produced near the house ( Card. Chron. 1 857,
p. 55). There is another specimen from Kew Gardens, 1779, showing that the tree was cultivated early there.
2 Card. Chron. 1 887, ii. 364.
I F