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34 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland and for this reason it is successfully used to cover railway and road embankments in France. It will not grow well on compact clay or on chalky or absolutely poor soils. In England it has only been planted as an ornamental tree, and it is very suitable for planting in towns, as it is not injured by smoke and is free from insect attacks and fungous diseases. Though it suckers freely, this is no objection in streets, where the pavements or wheel traffic prevents them from making an appearance. The young shoots are often killed by frost, but this only serves to keep the tree within bounds without the use of the pruning knife. The Ailanthus only makes one shoot annually, late in the spring, which continues to grow till October or November, and this is the reason why it is spring tender, as the tips of the shoots do not become properly lignified. The tree, however, bears the greatest cold in winter, and was not injured by the severe frost of 1879. The tree produces flowers in England when it is about 40 feet high ; and it fruits pretty frequently, but the seeds are often infertile. When the Ailanthus is cut back annually, it grows rapidly and produces foliage of enormous size, suitable for the so-called tropical garden. Leaves of plants so treated have measured as much as 4 feet long and 15 inches wide. The Ailanthus succeeds in a great variety of climates, and is planted in regions so diverse as Northern India, the United States, France, Germany, and Italy. In France it has not been successful as a forest tree, as it is not a social species, and is speedily dominated by native trees, if it survives the seedling stage, when it is sensitive to spring frosts. In warmer climates it easily regenerates by seed, and in consequence has become naturalised in many parts of Europe (as on the arid slopes of Mount Vesuvius, where it stands very well the drought), and in the United States, 1 where it often runs wild in old fields. American writers praise the tree for the value of its wood and the rapidity of its growth, as it is said to make timber faster than any of the native trees that are used for firewood. The wood is yellowish or yellowish green, and is not clearly distinguishable into well-marked heart and sap woods, though in old trees the centre of the stem becomes deeper in colour. The wood has a specific gravity of 0.6, and is easily worked, taking a good polish. It rives easily. It is used by wheelwrights as a substitute for elm and ash ; but is inferior to these, as it does not possess their elasticity or their capability of resistance to fracture. It is said, however, to bear well alternations of dry and wet. Mr. J. A. Weale of Liverpool, who has paid great attention to the study of timbers, and knows more about them than any one in the trade in this country, writes to us that this wood resembles that of the ash so closely in structure, that the only real difference between the two is in the large cellular compound pores which are formed in the Ailanthus, as shown in the microscopical section which he enclosed. Elwes is assured by Prof. C. S. Sargent that it makes nice furniture, and he has a specimen from a large tree which was cut down in the Palace Gardens at Wells, Somerset, of which the timber was bought by Mr. Halliday, a cabinetmaker, for £8. 1 Also in Southern Ontario. See Britton and Brown, loc. eft. . Ailanthus REMARKABLE TREES The largest Ailanthus was that at Syon, which was 70 feet high in Loudon's time, and nearly 100 feet in 1880.' It is now dead. At Kew a vigorous tree is growing in the garden behind the Palace, which measures 73 feet high and 8 feet in girth. Not far off a number of Ailanthus trees of varying size, but none very large, occurs in a group, and they seem to be root-suckers ; probably one of the original trees was planted in this spot in the eighteenth century. At Milton Rectory, Steventon, Berks, there are two trees of equal height (78 feet), one girthing 9 feet i inch, and the other 8 feet 6 inches. Both these trees bloom freely every year, producing fruit of a bright red colour on the south side of the trees ; and the seeds, as they fall in the garden near hand, produce seedlings which are very vigorous. 2 At the Mote, Maidstone, there are two large trees, one of which is 70 feet high and 8 feet in circumference. At Linton Park, Maidstone, is a tree growing in a shrubbery which was nearly 80 feet high by 6 feet 6 inches in 1902. At Broom House, Fulham, the residence of Miss Sulivan, is a tree 80 feet high, with a bole 9 feet long and 10 feet in girth, which divides into two main stems (Plate 13). At Fakenham, Norfolk, Sir Hugh Beevor has measured a tree 75 feet by 8 feet ii inches. At Barton, Bury St. Edmunds, an Ailanthus which was planted in 1826 3 measured in 1904 55 feet high, with a girth of stem of 5 feet 2 inches. Bunbury says that it is perfectly hardy at Barton, and did not suffer in the least from the severe winter of 1860. It was 3^ feet girth at 3 feet from the ground in 1862. It flowered abundantly in August of 1861, the greater part of the flowers being herma phrodite, and a considerable number of fruits were formed, but all dropped off before coming to maturity. It fruited abundantly in 1868. Bunbury says, generally there is only one samara to each flower, but not unfrequently two or three ; he never saw more than three. At Belton Park, the seat of Earl Brownlow, is a fine specimen of the tree, for a photograph of which (Plate 14) we are indebted to Miss F. Woolward, who gives its height as 83 feet, and its girth as 6 feet. This seems to be the tallest tree recorded in England. At Burwood House, Cobham, Surrey, the seat of Lady Ellesmere, Colonel H. Thynne has measured an Ailanthus 71 feet high by 10 feet 10 inches girth, which, though partly fallen down and supported by a prop, is still a fine tree. The tree seems to require a climate which is at once both warmer and drier in summer than that of the northern and western counties of England, and we do not know of any trees of any great size now existing in Scotland, Ireland, or Wales, though Loudon states that there was one at Dunrobin Castle, Sutherlandshire, 43 feet high. (A. H.) 1 Garden, 1 880, xviii. 629. a The Rev. H. Hamilton Jackson kindly sent us this information in a letter dated Dec. 10, 1903. 3 Bunbury, Arboretum Notes, 88. 35
SOPHORA Sophora, Linnaeus, Gen. PI. 1 25 (1737); Bentham et Hooker, Gen. PI. i . 555 (1865). TREES, shrubs, or perennial herbs, with naked buds and imparipinnate leaves. Flowers papilionaceous, in simple racemes or terminal leafy panicles. Calyx five- toothed, imbricate. Stamens ten, not united together, or rarely sub-connate. Ovary short-stalked, with many ovules. Pod moniliform, indehiscent, or tardily dehiscent. The name Sophora was taken by Linnseus from the Arabic word Sophera, which indicated some leguminous tree. The genus belongs to the tribe Sophorese (Natural order Leguminosse, division Papilionacese) characterised by imparipinnate leaves and ten free stamens. There are about twenty-five species of Sophora, generally spread throughout the tropical and warm temperate regions of the globe. The only species of importance which attain to timber size are Sophora japonica and Sophora platycarpa. Sophora macrocarpa from Chile and Sophora tetraptera from New Zealand are shrubs or small trees, which are frequently cultivated in the southern counties of England, and do not come within the scope of our work, although they are said to attain a height of 50 feet in the wild state. Sophora platycarpa, Maximowicz, in Mel. Biol. ix. 70 (1873), (Fuji-ki in Japan), only lately 1 introduced into cultivation in England; but in the United States, where it has been grown for some time, it is said to have proved hardier than Sophora japonica? I t is a tree of considerable size, occurring in woods in Japan on the side of Fusiyama and in Nambu. It is similar in leaves and flowers to Sophora japonica; and, as will be pointed out in our account of that species, has been probably confused with it by writers on Japanese trees. The leaves are larger than in Sophora japonica, the leaflets being 2 to 3^ inches long, alternate, acuminate, glabrous or nearly so. The flowers are ^ inch long, white, and loosely arranged. The main difference is in the pod, which is membranous, flat, narrowly winged on each side, and irregularly constricted. 8 1 There are two plants at Kew which were raised from seeds obtained in 1896 from Spath of Berlin. See Mittheil. der Deut. Dendr. Gesell. 1 896, p. 27. 2 A. Rehder in Bailey's Cyclopedia of American Horticulture, p. 1684 (1902). 3 Sophora shikokiana, Maluno, in Tokyo Botanical Magazine, 1 900, p. 56 (Ynko-noki in Japan), is described as a species closely allied to S. platycarpa, and as being widely distributed throughout the mountain districts of Japan. It is said to be a tree of considerable size. Sophora 37 SOPHORA JAPONICA, SOPHORA TREE Sophora japonica, Linnseus, Mantissa i . 68 (1767); London, Arb. et Frut. Brit. ii. 563 (1838)5 Shirasawa, Iconographie des Essences Forestieres du Japon, i., Text, p. 86, Plate 50 (1900). A large tree, with a straight cylindrical stem of considerable height in some cases, but more often in cultivated examples dividing at no great distance above the base; branches tortuous, with pendent tips; crown of foliage, large, broad, and rounded in shape. Bark brown or greyish and scaly, fissured longitudinally, but to no great depth; on young shoots and older branchlets, smooth and dark green. Leaves deciduous, alternate, unequally pinnate, with nine to fifteen leaflets, which are sub-opposite, oval, pointed at the apex, often ending in a short bristle, dark green and opaque above, glaucous beneath. In the ordinary cultivated form they are apparently glabrous, but with a lens minute hairs may be detected on both surfaces. The petiolules are velvety ; the main stalk is greenish, swollen at the base, and slightly pubescent. In certain wild specimens from China they are green and not glaucous beneath ; and in Hupeh a well-marked variety occurs, in which the under surface of the leaflets, the petiole, and young shoots are densely white pubescent. Flowers in large, loosely branched terminal panicles. They are somewhat vari able in colour ; in Central China white, at Canton a bright yellow, in cultivation in England pale yellow, sometimes tinged with purple. Calyx small, bell-shaped, five- toothed. Corolla, standard large, obtuse, round, recurved; wings oval-oblong; keel semi-orbicular, rounded, and of the same length as the wings. Pod long- stalked, i to 2 inches long, glabrous, fleshy, compressed, with a beak at the apex, and constricted between the seeds, which are one to five in each pod, dark brown in colour and kidney shaped. 1 In England the tree produces Powers regularly, late in the season, in August, September, and October, but seldom if ever fruits. IDENTIFICATION Sophora japonica is readily distinguished in summer by the leaves, the characters of which have been already given, and by the branchlets, which are angled, very smooth and dark green, both in the young shoots and those of the second year. When the young shoots are cut they emit a strong peculiar odour. In winter the characters of the buds and branchlets must be noted. The buds are spirally arranged on the shoots; solitary or in pairs, one placed above the other ; naked, i.e. not surrounded by any true scales, and dark violet densely pubescent. They are 1 Seedling.—Seeds sown early in the year at Colesborne produced two or three young plants, which showed the following characters in July: Caulicle an inch or more in length, terete, green, glabrous, ending in a long whitish tap-root with numerous lateral fibres. Cotyledons oblong-spathulate, $ inch long, entire, rounded at the apex, tapering at the base, suh-sessile, coriaceous, dark green and minutely pubescent above, pale green below. Stem white appressed pubescent, giving off alternately about six compound leaves; the lower three with five leaflets, the terminal leaflet being larger and broader in proportion to its length than the others; the upper three with 7 to 9 leaflets, uniform in size and shape; all the leaflets oval, entire, shortly-stalked, their under surface with a scattered appressed pubescence, dense on the midrib. Small ovoid densely pubescent buds are produced, one in the axil of each leaf, the shoot being terminated by an oblong white pubescent larger bud.
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172, The Trees of Great Britain and
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2OO The Trees of Great Britain and
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a 7" KSrJi «£^«~ **». . "" ^ '"
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INARCHED BP;ECH AT ASIIRIDGE TLATE
Page 117 and 118:
13KECII WOOD AT SLINHON A ru 6.
Page 119 and 120:
BEECH AT NEWBATTLE Pi .ATE 8.
Page 121 and 122:
I BEECH AT GORDON CASTLE TLAI-K 10.
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KING BEECH AT KNOLE I'LAIE 12.
Page 125 and 126:
AILANTHUS AT BELTON PLATE 14.
Page 127 and 128:
SOI'HORA AT CAMBRIDGE PLATE 16.
Page 129 and 130:
ARAUCARIA FOREST IN CM ILK I'l.MT.
Page 131 and 132:
ARAUCARIAS AT BEAUFORT
Page 133 and 134:
MAIDENHAIR T liEK AT FKOGMOKF. PLAT
Page 135 and 136:
TULIP TREE IN NORTH CAROLINA 1'LATE
Page 137 and 138:
TULIP TREE AT KILLERTON PLATE 26.
Page 139 and 140:
PLATE SERVIAN SPRUCE IN BOSNIA 28.
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MENZIES' SPRUCE AT BEAUFORT PLATE 3
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YEW AVENUE AT MIDIIURST PLATE 32.
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i '*m i t /n b &; y'JM i /Jk, - •
Page 147 and 148:
•• *-' YEW AT WHITTIKGHAME PLAT
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CRYPTOMERIA FOREST IN NORTH JAPAN 1
Page 151 and 152:
CRYPTOMEKIAS AT IMAICHI I'l.ATE 40.
Page 153 and 154:
CRYPTOMERIA AT HEMSTED PLATK 42.
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PYRUS. PLATE 44.
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SORB TREE AT ARLEV PLATE 46.
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SERVICE TREE AT RICKMANSWORTH >.mmm
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'^iji^m^^Jt^.^M. SERVICE TREE AT SY
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DECIDUOUS CYPRESS IN VIRGINIA PLATE
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DECIDUOUS CYPRESS AT SYON Tr.ATE 54
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GIANT THUYA IN VANCOUVER'S ISLAND P
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Plate 58 represents the trunk of wh
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j« WESTERN HEMLOCK GROWING ON FALL
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